The Delhi High Court passed an order on September 25 directing the takedown of several YouTube videos that allegedly defamed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Gaurav Bhatia.
“We will direct takedown of the offensive videos. In the event they are not taken down, then they [Google] will take them down. You [Gaurav Bhatia] will inform them, and they [Google] will take them down,” said Justice Amit Bansal.
Background of the case:
Bhatia had approached the court seeking the removal of numerous YouTube videos allegedly defaming him. These purportedly showed a clip from his appearance on a News18 discussion earlier this month, where he was allegedly captured without pants. He later clarified that he was wearing shorts.
According to LiveLaw, Bhatia named 22 defendants in his suit—Samajwadi Party Media Cell, journalist Abhisar Sharma, Congress leader Ragini Nayak, AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj, X handles Mohit Chauhan, Ranting Gola, Manoj Yadav, Manoj Singh Kaka, Manish Tiwari, Sandeep Singh, Roshan Rai, Swanaamdhanya, Rajkumar Bhati, Rofl Gandhi, Bolta Hindustan, Wg Dr. Anuma Acharya, Surendra Rajput, Srinivas, Newslaundry, News18, five YouTube channels, X, and Google India.
What Happened During The Hearing?
“This can’t be freedom of speech. This can’t be humor and satire, your lordship, when you go to this extent of defaming a person who has earned reputation through his own hard work,” Bhatia argued.
He referred to videos from one defendant that used the phrase nanga or “naked” in the headline. “False. Also malicious and derogatory,” he commented.
“The only urgency is that this is happening on a regular basis. So subject to your Lordship’s convenience, if an order is passed to restrain them and take down the defamatory post, it would be a great one,” Bhatia added.
Meanwhile, advocate Mamta Rani, appearing for Google, argued that of all the offending Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) listed by Bhatia, only eight were on Google’s platforms. She suggested that since many of the videos belonged to popular outlets like Newslaundry or Delhi Patrika, the court could issue notices to them directly to ensure compliance.
She also requested liberty to inform the court and the plaintiff if some URLs were not on Google’s platform in the case of a dynamic order.
“I’m not expecting them to keep a watch on every post that is made all the time,” Bhatia clarified.
He further asked the court to order Google to de-index those URLs from Google Search.
Advertisements
Past Incidents
This is not the first time news publishers have had their content removed from YouTube for defamation. Just last week, news broke that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) had sent notices to 12 news publishers, asking them to take down videos made regarding the Adani Group. The journalists included Ravish Kumar, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, and Dhruv Rathee, as well as news…
Source link
Disclaimer
We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We blogs.grocliq.com want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.
Website Upgradation is going on for any glitch kindly connect at [email protected]
