Google to block 17 Dutch articles on abducted Insiya in India
Google says a New Delhi court order requires it to hide the articles from Indian search results, while the Dutch foreign minister plans to raise the girl's case on a trip to India later this month.
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Illustrative photo: Choinowski / CC BY-SA 4.0
Google will soon block 17 Dutch news articles about Insiya, a girl abducted from Amsterdam ten years ago, from search results for users in India. Google says it is acting on a court order from a judge in New Delhi, issued on 30 October.
Google says it complies with court orders in the countries where it operates, after carrying out its own legal assessment. It stresses that the measure is limited to India and does not affect search results for users elsewhere.
Insiya was 2 when four men seized her in broad daylight in Amsterdam-Oost and took her by force to her father in India. She is now 12. The abductors and the father were sentenced in the Netherlands; the father was given nine years in prison in absentia. Her mother, Nadia Rashid, has not seen her since that day.
In a social media video, Rashid says her own accounts are also blocked in India. "The abductor who was convicted gets off scot-free. I, as a mother, am being silenced, just like the free press," she says. She calls the blocks unprecedented and unacceptable and urges the Dutch cabinet to act.
Foreign Minister Berendsen said in a debate last week that the case has his full attention and that he raises it constantly in talks with India. He will travel there at the end of this month: "then I will discuss this again." A Dutch delegation will go to India shortly. Berendsen also noted that court cases on the matter are under way in India.
India has not signed the Hague Child Abduction Convention and is not bound by its rules. The Dutch embassy in New Delhi is investigating whether a court procedure lies behind the block.
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