Delhi HC slams Wikipedia for its dedicated page on the ongoing lawsuit against it by ANI
The Hindu
Delhi High Court expresses displeasure over Wikipedia page in defamation lawsuit, threatens to shut down Wikipedia in India.
The Delhi High Court on Monday (October 14, 2024) expressed serious displeasure over a dedicated Wikipedia page on the ongoing defamation lawsuit filed by Asian News International (ANI) against Wikimedia Foundation, which hosts Wikipedia.
The Wikipedia page is titled ‘Asian News International vs. Wikimedia Foundation’, and says, “The judge in the case has threatened to order the government of India to shut down Wikipedia in the country. His order to WMF to release the identities of the editors who made the edits has been called censorship and a threat to the flow of information.”
“You have put learned single judge in line of fire. This page will have to be taken down, otherwise we will not hear him... You may be world’s most powerful entity but we live in a country which is governed by the rule of law and we take pride in that,” a Bench of Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela told Wikipedia’s counsel.
The court’s observation came while hearing an appeal filed by Wikipedia against a single judge order to disclose details of three individuals who edited the ANI Wikipedia page.
During the hearing, Wikipedia’s counsel said that Wikipedia was only challenging the single judge order directing the disclosure of the identity of the users who had made the edits.
As Wikipedia sought to protect the anonymity of the persons behind the edits, the court said, “The system cannot be a cloak to defame someone…You are accusing someone, a journalist, of being a State-sponsored agent...”.
“You (Wikipedia) are a service provider. You run the risk of your protection, your safe harbour being waived... You run the risk of your Section 79 [of the Information Technology Act] being waived. The filing of this appeal itself means there is a waiver,” the court orally remarked.
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