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Informist, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court on Monday came down heavily on Wikimedia Foundation Inc., which hosts the free online encyclopaedia platform Wikipedia, for having a page about pending proceedings on a defamation suit filed by ANI Media Pvt. Ltd against the platform. The court asked Wikimedia's counsel to take instructions regarding taking down the page. It will next hear the matter Wednesday. 

 

"This page (titled ANI v. Wikipedia) will have to be taken down by your client in case he even wants to be heard. Otherwise, we will not hear him. And we'll direct the single judge not to hear him. You can't put the single judge in fear or threaten him," said the Bench led by Chief Justice Manmohan. However, it refused to formally pass an order regarding taking down the page and sought a reply from Wikimedia's counsel. 

 

The remark came after ANI's counsel informed the court that Wikimedia had justified the "defamatory" content by calling it fair. The counsel told the court that a dedicated page related to this case showed that the platform had an agenda against the news agency, and it shows that the party has scant regard for Indian courts. 

 

To this, Chief Justice Manmohan said, "You may be the world's powerful entity but we live in a country which is governed by law, and we take pride in that," adding that "you cannot threaten a judge".

 

The division bench of the high court was hearing an appeal by Wikimedia against a single-judge order that had issued a contempt notice to it. The notice was issued for not complying with the court's previous order asking to give ANI Media the subscriber details of the three people who had allegedly made "defamatory" edits to Wikipedia's web page on the news agency, referring to it as a "propaganda tool" for the current government.

 

On Sept. 5, Justice Navin Chawla had said Wikimedia's arguments had been heard by the court earlier as well in different cases and had been rejected. "I will impose contempt... It is not a question of Defendant No. 1 not being an entity in India. We will close your business transactions here. We will ask the government to block Wikipedia... Earlier also, you people have taken this argument. If you don't like India, please don't work in India," Justice Chawla said. The single judge was hearing a defamation suit filed by ANI Media against Wikipedia and its host Wikimedia Foundation over the alleged defamatory description of the news agency. ANI had sought to restrain Wikipedia from putting defamatory content against it on its platform and remove the same. ANI is seeking damages of 20 mln rupees from the US non-profit organisation.

 

During the hearing by the division bench, Wikimedia opposed divulging the subscriber details of the three people. The Bench said that Wikimedia would be putting its intermediary protection under the Information Technology Act at risk by taking such a stand. "You are the service provider, you run some risk of your protection, safe harbor being waived," said the court. The system of Wikipedia cannot be a cloak to defame someone, it added.

 

Further, the high court said that Wikimedia defending its users shows that such edits have been made at the behest of the platform. "Your vehemence is showing ... you are something more than an intermediary," said the court.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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