Mumbai Police can now nail web offenders
Landmark deal signed with Orkut to share ip addresses and help arrest those
posting objectionable content Anti-Shivaji forums or anti-Ambedkar postings
or “hate India” campaigns on Google’s social networking site, Orkut, have
been confounding our authorities for quite sometime now. Other than blocking
the objectionable forums, the Mumbai Police could do little-except wait for
the next one to pop up on the web, say, a “fan club” of wanted underworld
dons like Dawood Ibrahim or Chhota Shakeel. But not any more.
The Mumbai Police is finally equipped to track down such offenders and bring them to
book. A single e-mail between the DCP in charge of the Enforcement Branch
and the California-based company will now nail such persons. Following a
meeting between representatives of the site and the Enforcement Directorate
last month, the Mumbai Police and Orkut have entered into an agreement to
seal such cooperation in matters of objectionable material on the web.
“Early February, I met three representatives from Orkut.com, including a top
official from the US. The other two were from Bangalore. We reached a
working agreement whereby Orkut has agreed to provide us details of the ip
address from which an objectionable message or blog has been posted on the
site and the Internet service provider involved,” said DCP Enforcement,
Sanjay Mohite. That the measure is fool-proof is evident from the fact that
an encrypted code has also been agreed upon for such communication to
prevent people from posing as the Mumbai Police and laying their hands on
such information from Orkut. “I am also going to hold a meeting with all
Internet service providers to stress the need to share information. We are
also hoping to rope in U Tube in the future,” said Mohite.
Earlier, if a complaint regarding objectionable content was received, the police would
contact the computer emergency response team, a government body based in New
Delhi, and ask it to block the concerned web page. They did not have any way
to track down the culprits. “It was almost out of the question to track down
the person who posted the material as we would have to go through the CBI to
get basic information from Orkut as they are based in the US.
The entire process of letter rogatory would come into play. But now we can take action
on any content posted on the site from India,” he explained. Mohite talks of
a citizen who had complained to the police in November regarding a
photograph of her posted on Orkut, along with derogatory text. “She provided
us the name of a suspected, but we did not have any proof. After the new
agreement was reached, we asked Orkut for the details of the concerned ip
address. They replied instantly and we nailed the culprit, who turned out to
be the suspect,” said Mohite.