TechCrunch reports that Google has aided in the arrest of an Indian man who wrote in an Orkut community, “I hate Sonia Gandhi.” Sonia Gandhi is a politician in India. Google reportedly handed over IP information to the Indian government, to help the government track down and arrest this individual.

The man was charged under section 292 of Indian Penal Code and section 67 of the Information Technology Act. If he is convicted, he can be jailed for up to five-years and pay hefty fines.

PC World reports that Google defended themselves, saying that they must comply with the laws of the countries they operate in. Google told PC World that Google does support “free expression of its users and is committed to protecting user privacy,” but when the laws require them to hand over information through court orders and subpoenas, they have no choice but to comply.

Yahoo has received major bad press and bad will over aiding the imprisonment of a Chinese dissident. You can read our coverage of that news starting over here and then by clicking back to our past stories.

Related Topics: Google: Legal | Google: Outside US | Legal: Privacy

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz