Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court has issued notice to Google, the Central and state governments after the tech giant blocked the email account of a man for nearly a year citing “explicit child abuse" after he uploaded a nude childhood photo on Google Drive.
The petitioner, Neel Shukla, a computer engineer, encountered trouble after he uploaded on Google Drive a photo of his grandmother bathing him when he was two years old.
The court of Justice Vaibhavi D Nanavati on March 15 issued notices to Google, the Central and state governments returnable on March 26.
E-mail account was blocked in April 2023
Shukla's account was blocked by the tech giant in April last year for violating its policy regarding content showing "explicit child abuse," as explained by his counsel, Dipen Desai, to the court.
He filed a petition in the high court on March 12 after the company was unable to resolve the issue through its grievance redressal mechanism, according to his counsel.
Desai informed the court that since Google blocked Shukla's email account, he has been unable to access his emails, leading to financial losses for his business.
The petitioner, in his plea, said, "Google says this amounts to 'explicit child abuse,' and they have blocked everything. I have not been able to access my email and my business (is affected) as everything is blocked."
Shukla had approached the Gujarat police and the Centre's Department of Science and Technology, which is the nodal agency for such matters in India. However, they failed to take any action, prompting him to seek judicial remedy.
Additionally, the petitioner requested an urgent hearing, as he received a notice from Google stating that the data linked to his account would be deleted in April, a year after it was rendered inoperative.
(With PTI inputs)
