Delhi High Court cautions Wikipedia for non-compliance of order

Delhi High Court warns Wikipedia for not disclosing ANI page editors, threatens to block in India.

The Delhi High Court on Thursday (September 5, 2024) cautioned Wikipedia for failing to comply with the court’s previous order to disclose details of the subscribers who edited the page of news media Asian News International (ANI).

“If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India,” the court warned Wikipedia saying if it does not comply with the court order, it might ask the government to block Wikipedia in India.

The court’s observation came while hearing ANI’s plea against Wikipedia over alleged false, misleading and defamatory contents in the ANI Page on the platform.

ANI had complained that certain edits on the ANI Page in Wikipedia claimed it as “propaganda tool for the incumbent government”. ANI contended that their attempt to edit the content “showcasing true and correct position, supported by trusted sources, were removed by Wikipedia to restore the false and misleading position earlier available on its platform”.

“This malicious conduct of the Defendants (Wikipedia) ex-facie establishes their ulterior motives of defaming Plaintiff (ANI) by publishing false and misleading content against Plaintiff,” ANI’s plea said.

On August 20, the court had ordered Wikipedia to disclose the subscriber details who made the defamatory edits to the ANI Page to ANI Media within a period of two weeks.

ANI told the court that despite reminding Wikipedia of the court order to disclose the subscribers who made the edits, it declined to disclose the details. “This clearly demonstrates wilful disobedience of the order,” ANI said.