Technology aids violence against women

Google India runs ad for illegal baby sex test kit, AP/Indian Express, September 12, 2008.

Mumbai, September 12: The image seems innocuous enough: A pregnant woman’s belly with a male symbol scrawled in ink to the right of her navel and a female symbol to the left.But in India, where the practice of aborting female fetuses is widespread, such advertisements for prenatal gender selection kits are neither innocuous nor legal.

Last month, activist Sabu George filed a petition against the Indian subsidiaries of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo with the nation’s highest court, asking the companies to pull gender selection advertisements from their Indian search engines. On Aug. 13, the Supreme Court asked the companies to respond to the petition.