India Will Investigate Google and Yahoo

Indian authorities have started an investigation into Internet giants Google and Yahoo over accusations that the American companies have been fiddling the books on funds heading out of the country.

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The investigation in question will cover foreign exchange transactions, which was confirmed by a senior official in the finance ministry. It became known that the offices of both companies were set to have their books probed for infringements.

According to the official, a number of notices have been sent out to the local offices of the two Internet giants, but further grounds for peering through the piles of tax returns haven’t been provided yet. However, it is believed that Google has been in breach of rules on foreign transactions over sending money to its Irish banks, to name a few.

According to the local media reports, the company hasn’t officially had a word to say on the impending investigation. During the interview, Google said that that they were compliant with tax rules in all the regions of the world in which they operate. As for Yahoo, they refused to comment.

Meanwhile, the news of a tax-probe is piling on problems for both of the companies, who would be forgiven for believing the authorities have it in for them right now. Yahoo and Google, among others, have come under fire from the country’s courts over publishing what has been described as “controversial material”. A lot of Internet giants, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and others had refused to delete online material that was deemed to be offensive from the local legal eagles. The company has since agreed to remove the material, which has riled a number of members of the public, from its local services.

One more court case would also go ahead, which would decide whether the host of companies can be held liable for offensive material located on the Internet. Meanwhile, an appeal against curbing Internet freedoms will go ahead in the coming days. Filtering concerns were also raised in Iran last weekend, after Google and Yahoo’s email services were taken down. It turned out that logins to popular email services like Hotmail and Gmail were for unknown reason cut off last week thanks to what was believed to be more interference by government authorities.

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