Indian court case against Google, Facebook, Microsoft delayed till May
A case in India against 20 companies, including Microsoft , Google and Facebook, alleging they failed to censor objectionable content from their websites had been postponed until May 23.
Facebook: case delayed
Executives of all the companies have been exempted from appearing in person at the court in New Delhi by an earlier court order.
Journalist Vinay Rai is seeking the prosecution of the companies for alleged criminal conspiracy, defamation, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and race and obscene content, among other charges .
There has been much controversy in India over what role Internet companies should have in policing content on the Web. If convicted, executives from the companies could face jail time and the companies could face fines, said lawyers .
Most companies argue that India's information-technology law protects them from liability for content posted by users.
Google, Facebook and Microsoft have petitioned to quash the case. Yahoo has already successfully appealed to be removed from the case.