Microsoft, Google move Delhi High Court against order to remove non-consensual intimate images online

Tech giants Microsoft and Google have approached the Delhi High Court challenging an order directing search engines to proactively remove non-consensual intimate images (NCII) from the internet without insisting on specific URLs [Microsoft Corporation v. Union of India & Ors]..Microsoft told a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora that it is technologically impossible for it to implement the directions by a single-judge of the Delhi High Court and that the directives overstep the existing legal framework..After it was informed that Google had also filed a similar appeal which is likely to be listed on Thursday (May 9), the Court said that it will consider both cases together on that day..Microsoft and Google have filed the appeals against the judgment passed by Justice Subramonium Prasad on April 26, 2023. In a detailed judgment, Justice Prasad had warned the social media intermediaries that they will lose their protection from liability if there is even a minor deviation from the time-frame provided under the Information Technology Rules (IT Rules) for removal of non-consensual intimate content.Justice Prasad had held that technology exists for the search engines to remove the NCII content without requiring the victim to approach the courts or other authorities again and again for removal of the same.The single-judge had said that search engines cannot feign helplessness when it comes to removal of or disabling access to links containing such illegal content..Senior Advocate Jayant Mehta appeared for Microsoft today and said that the single-judge had relied on the tool used by Meta (Facebook) to remove such content. However, he said, there is a difference between Meta and Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) because unlike Meta, Bing does not host any content.“I can’t do it. I am Bing. Given the technology that exists today, we can’t do it...The directions [issued by the single-judge] overstep the regulatory framework. So long as we are given the URLs, we can take it down, but when the order says you [search engines] go looking for this image all over the database and then remove it, it is not possible,” Mehta said.He further added that even Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot be deployed to carry out the directions, because it will not be possible for the AI tools to distinguish between consensual and non-consensual images.