There's anger online against the latest demand to block the social networking site orkut.com.

The demand was first made by the Thane Police and now the Mumbai Police has also followed suit. This is a fallout of violent protests by the Shiv Sena last Sunday over alleged anti-party comments on the site.

"Following what happened, we have written to the Centre, asking them to take action against the site and we have also asked cyber cafe owners in Mumbai to take precautions," said DN Jadhav, Police Commissioner, Mumbai.

While the CERT says it's unaware of the complaints and plans to take no action as yet, Orkut is already facing an unofficial ban in Thane since the police has asked cyber cafe owners not to allow users to log onto the site.

'Futile policing'

However, veteran bloggers like writer Dilip D'Souza call this kind of policing futile.

"Last year, when they had banned sites, people found other ways of accessing them. If they ban Orkut, people will find a way of accessing it. It's pointless banning something like this.

"Respect or hate cannot be forced by hitting someone on the head. You may force me to not write it, but that doesn't mean it's going to go away," said D'Souza.

"Google does not proactively monitor the content, unless it is flagged by users. Once flagged, we will review the content against the terms and conditions mentioned on the website. We will pull out the content if it violates these," said Google Spokesperson.

In December last year, Google had met with security agencies in five cities and set-up a reporting mechanism by which they could directly report objectionable content to Google and have it removed.

At that time, it was seen as a move, which would preempt trouble from protesting groups.

However now, the Thane Police's move has raised questions on whether that mechanism needs expanding.