Google, Microsoft pull sex ads after India legal threat
By Agence France Presse,
Agence France Presse
| 09. 18. 2008
Internet giants Google and Microsoft have pulled adverts for sex selection products and other services considered illegal in India after being threatened with legal action, activists said Thursday.
India's Supreme Court had last month asked the two companies plus Yahoo to respond to a complaint that they were illegally advertising do-it-yourself kits and expensive genetic techniques to find out an unborn baby's gender.
Activists said the products -- which have not been scientifically proven to be accurate or safe -- damage efforts to stem mass abortions of girls because of a traditional preference for boys in India.
"Sponsored links in Google have come down considerably. They have disappeared from Microsoft India search," activist Sabu George, who filed the petition, told AFP.
A random search for "gender selection" on Yahoo, however, produces links to resources and clinics offering to help people choose the gender of their child.
Yahoo India was not immediately available for comment.
There are 927 females for every 1,000 males in India compared to the worldwide average of 1,050 females. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says India loses...
Related Articles
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 06.04.2026
Scientists at Columbia University have edited the DNA of early human embryos with unprecedented accuracy, an achievement that could open the way to babies engineered with particular characteristics.
The prospect has fueled controversy for years. On the one hand, the...
By Staff, ABC News | 06.01.2026
The Victorian government is introducing legislation it says will make IVF clinics safer and more accountable following high-profile bungles by private providers.
As part of the changes, the state's health minister will have the power to personally intervene to cancel...
Faster, Higher, Stronger was the Olympic motto from 1874 until 2001, when “ – Together” was added, to stress the “moral and educational perspective” of the Games. The folks who paid for or participated in the Enhanced Games – the name itself a nod to the Olympics – held in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 24, apparently use a different edit:
Faster, Higher, Stronger with Chemistry
High-level sport draws huge crowds. Coming very soon, the soccer World Cup, featuring...
By Laura Hughes, Financial Times | 05.20.2026
Sophie and her husband are set to spend more than £100,000 in travel and medical bills as they fly between England and the US in their bid to have another child.
The couple are undergoing IVF treatment in New York...
