The Delhi High Court has issued notices to Facebook India, Google India and Yahoo India — all represented by their managing directors in Gurgaon — along with the state, represented by the Commissioner of Police, over a plea seeking directions to remove all online links of the ‘Blue Whale challenge’. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar directed the websites and the state to file a status report detailing the steps taken, to stop the game, on the next date of hearing —September 19. On Tuesday, the Counsel for the CP said while the Union government had taken a stand in the matter, there were “no concrete established causes in Delhi and investigation was on”. He also said the CBSE had issued guidelines regarding the online game. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain requested the court to implead the Centre as a party in the case, to which the bench agreed. He told the bench that the Centre had already issued a circular on August 15 asking social media sites to remove all links to the game. Read: What is the Blue Whale Challenge? On August 15, the Ministry of Electronics and IT had directed Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Microsoft and Yahoo to remove all links to the game. The petitioner, advocate Gurmeet Singh, said while the relevant section of the IT Act recognised Yahoo, Google and Facebook as mere intermediaries, the Act also said their immunity as an intermediary stopped once the Centre issued them a notice They could be prosecuted if they did not follow the directive, he said. Earlier, in his petition, Singh underlined that four children below the age of 18 had died in Delhi, West Bengal, and Mumbai allegedly while taking part in the challenge. The petition also said there were cases where some minors were stopped right before they could allegedly commit suicide. The plea said the court should restrain websites from posting or allowing uploads of any material/ information/link pertaining to the game. It said the websites could be directed to immediately block, take down or ban any content/post /web link/material regarding the game. The CP could be directed to appoint a special team comprising at least five members, not below the rank of inspector, to ensure that the websites followed the directives, said the plea.
