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Orkut is becoming quite a problem child for Google. Now that things have finally begun to calm down from its legal battle in Brazil, similar issues are cropping up in India. This new issue involves hate speech, while the Brazilian dispute involved both hate speech and child pornography. Company execs still aren't likely to label this as "progress," though.

According to The Times of India, "the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to issue notice to Google for the alleged spread of hatred about India by its social network service Orkut.'" Apparently, someone created a "We Hate India" community, and "a picture of burning the national tricolour, bearing anti-India message, has been put on" the site.

Not even Google's biggest detractors would suggest that the company supports this sort of thing. Indeed, "Google will review and take appropriate action (removal in this case)," according to a Google spokesperson quoted in the Business Standard. But the case looks like it will involve the bigger issue of free speech.

"The petition also appealed to the government to appoint a controller to regulate such communities," reported The Register's Tracey Cooper. It will be a while before there are any more developments, though - "the next hearing in the case is due to be held in six weeks."

That should give the Google legal team plenty of time to plan its approach. That group probably isn't feeling too cheerful, given its recent "losses" in Brazil and Belgium. Still, they're likely to make a good attempt - our Jason Lee Miller noted that "Google resisted Chinese authoritarian mandates longer than Yahoo or MSN, until finally falling in line with the rest."

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.