Safernet Brasil

(AP) - MUMBAI, India-Google Inc. has agreed to help Indian police investigate inflammatory material posted on Orkut, the search engine giant's popular social networking site, and provide user information relating to illegal or inappropriate material, police said Friday.

Under the arrangement, police in Mumbai would flag objectionable material on Orkut and send an e-mail to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.

"There is freedom on the Internet, but it shouldn't be so free that it affects our society," Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Mohite told The Associated Press.

Roli Agarwal, a Google India spokeswoman, said the company would strike a balance between protecting Orkut users' privacy and assisting police in investigations.

Police can approach Google for user information only after registering a case with an Indian court, Agarwal said.

"It's not just that someone shoots an e-mail and we give them information," Agarwal said. "The Internet is all about free speech and Google has very high standards for Internet privacy."

Google said similar arrangements had been made with police in Brazil, which logs the highest traffic through Orkut.

Indian police first approached Google when hate messages against 17th century Hindu warrior Shivaji were posted last November as well as pornographic photographs of two Mumbai women.

Several lawmakers raised the issue in the Maharashtra state legislature and demanded that Orkut sites containing abusive language about Shivaji be blocked.

Google later removed the objectionable material, Mohite said.

Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra state.

Mohite said police in other Indian states could also have Google's help.

"Now we need to send one e-mail and they (Google) have assured us cooperation," Mohite said. "What we conveyed was their (Google's) commercial interests apart, criminals should not misuse the Internet."

After Brazil, India ranks second in Orkut's worldwide traffic with an estimated 6 million users out of a total of 37 million, according to Alexa.com, a site that tracks global Internet traffic.

Last year, Google agreed to shut down some Orkut communities after a Brazilian human rights commission accused them of advocating crime and violence.

The new checks worry some Internet activists.

"We welcome collaboration, but one needs to be careful of what 'misuse' means. Where will the line be drawn?" said Ashish Saboo, president of apiap.org, a Mumbai-based Internet group. "Whether it is freedom of expression or blasphemy, whether objections are valid or not, all this must be properly determined."