New Delhi, Jan 13 (IANS) The Central government Friday gave the green signal to proceed against all the accused persons heading 21 social networking sites, including Facebook and Google, that were allegedly hosting objectionable content.

“Government is satisfied that there is sufficient material to proceed against the accused persons under section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of IPC,” said the government report submitted to a court here.

The metropolitan magistrate had directed the central government to take immediate and appropriate steps on the objectionable content of the sites, and file its report by Jan 13.

Earlier in the day, the case hearing was adjourned till March 13 with a Delhi court directing the external affairs ministry to serve the summons issued to foreign-based social networking sites.

The petition, moved by Vinod Rai, had requested the court to remove objectionable content from 21 websites. Among these, 12 websites are of foreign-based companies.