In a legal tussle echoing through New Delhi’s corridors, the tech behemoths Microsoft and Google have mounted a challenge in the Delhi High Court against a solitary judge’s decree. This order demanded that search engines take proactive measures to expunge non-consensual intimate images (NCII) from the vast expanse of the internet sans specific URLs.

The crux of their argument lies in the contention that executing such directives stands as a towering feat, shackled by technological constraints and transgressing existing legal bounds.

Within the chambers of a divisional bench, helmed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, Microsoft voiced its stance. They asserted that acquiescing to the singular judge’s edicts remains a Herculean task due to the shackles of technology, and such mandates overstep the boundaries of established legal jurisprudence.

The pleas tendered by Microsoft and Google alike contest a verdict rendered by Justice Subramonium Prasad on April 26th. It has come to light that Google has also lodged a similar plea, slated for deliberation on May 9th. The bench has opted to scrutinize both cases in tandem.

Justice Prasad had sounded a note of caution to social media intermediaries, hinting at the jeopardy of losing their cloak of liability protection should they falter in complying with the stipulated timeframe under the Information Technology Rules, pertaining to the removal of non-consensual intimate content.

He underscored the fact that search engines possess the requisite technological arsenal to expunge NCII content without necessitating victims to incessantly knock on the doors of the judiciary. Moreover, they cannot plead helplessness in scrubbing or curtailing access to links harboring illicit content.

In defense of Microsoft, the seasoned advocate Jayant Mehta contended that the singular judge’s reliance on Meta’s tool for content curation is askew. Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, does not harbor any content per se. Mehta argued that abiding by the court’s directive to proactively scour and eradicate such content across the database is a tall order given the current technological constraints.

He also highlighted the impracticality of deploying Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to execute the directives, positing that AI would grapple with discerning between consensual and non-consensual imagery.