Realty ad stirs up controversy, 99Acres.com to get filter

Property portal 99Acres.com has landed in a controversy after a broker posted an advertisement for a flat in Mumbai mentioning ‘no Muslims’. Even after the broker modified the ad on November 2, ten days after it was posted, noise over the objectionable line continued across social networking sites. Then, the ad was withdrawn on November 4, but the incident has raised concerns on automated online postings such as this.

Although 99acres is talking of turning cautious through content filters, it may not be feasible to completely monitor malicious or objectionable advertisements.

“It is not possible to see all the property listings as 5,000-6,000 ads are posted on the site everyday. We have 8,000 brokers. We will have a filter for certain keywords that are abusive or non-desirable,” Hitesh Oberoi, managing director and chief executive, Info Edge, which owns 99Acres.com told Business Standard.

Currently, brokers can post their listings/advertisements on their own through a self-service online interface provided by 99acres.com .   

An expert tracking the sector says that such listings are not new and it has been happening on the property websites for some time now. “People have their own preferences while renting/selling out their property. But one should be discreet while advertising about it,” the expert adds.

The advertisement in this case was about a flat located at Dadar’s Hindu Colony in Mumbai. A lawyer-activist is reported to have taken up the matter with the Minority Commission after social networking sites went viral with the ad.

A statement from 99acres said,“The listing contained offensive references to a religious community. Our company is totally against such discriminatory practices. At any point of time ,  99acres has over 400,000 classified listings. The offensive text was removed from the listing by the advertiser before the matter was brought to our notice. “

It also said that the company is not liable in a case of prejudice because as per the IT act they are simply intermediaries and their responsibility is to remove offensive content once it is brought to their notice.

“We are in the process of putting in place more rigorous checks and processes to prevent the recurrence of such listings,” Oberoi said.