New Delhi, May 3 - The Delhi High Court Thursday deferred till Aug 7 the hearing on pleas filed by Facebook and Google challenging a trial court's order to prosecute them for allegedly hosting objectionable content on websites.

Petitioner Vinay Rai approached the trial court to remove objectionable content from 21 websites including Facebook, Google, Yahoo and YouTube. Among these, 12 websites are of foreign-based companies.

The central government Jan 13 allowed the prosecution of the social networking sites, saying the content was instigating enmity between different groups on the ground of religion and was against national harmony.