New Delhi: Can’t remove all posts in personality rights suit, Meta and X tell HC in Ramdev’s case
Social media intermediaries Meta and X (formerly Twitter) told the Delhi high court on Tuesday that Yoga exponent and Ayurveda entrepreneur Baba Ramdev cannot seek removal and blocking global access of content, including parody, satire, and news reports featuring his persona, in a suit for protection of personality rights, as this would infringe citizens’ right to freedom of speech.
The submission was made before a bench of Justice Jyoti Singh in a suit filed by the Patanjali Ayurveda founder seeking protection of his personality rights by restraining various entities from using his persona without his consent.
In his suit, Ramdev also sought the takedown of news articles and television reports that featured his image in connection with the launch and promotion of the Patanjali e-scooter, contending that these created a false and misleading impression of his direct association with the product. He also sought global blocking of certain X and Facebook accounts using his image, as well as removal of videos depicting him riding an elephant and posts showing him visiting an allopathic doctor for treatment.
Meta’s counsel submitted that of the 18 URLs flagged by Ramdev on its platform, three had already been disabled, ten pertained to content published by independent news platforms which had to be sued, and the remaining were satirical in nature.
“You can’t have a personality right against a news channel using your name… If anyone has to claim personality rights against the news channels, then fair reporting goes out of the window. Today, with egregious content we have no problem, but news reporting? ” Meta’s lawyer said.
X’s lawyer too objected to the indiscriminate blocking orders from the court. “The issue is not one account, it’s blocking the accounts indiscriminately in personality rights… Block an entire account when there is nothing egregious? Plaintiff’s feelings cannot sanitise the entire internet of others freedom of speech,” the counsel added.
Ramdev’s counsel, Rajiv Nayyar, argued that social media intermediaries were expected to act fairly, but in the present case, they were resisting the removal of defamatory and disparaging content. He maintained that the posts sought to be taken down were disparaging in nature and created a false and misleading impression of Ramdev’s direct association with the product.
Given the disagreement between Nayyar and counsel for the social media intermediaries over content removal, the court directed Ramdev to furnish a list of the material he sought to be taken down. It also asked the intermediaries to file their objections and listed the matter for hearing on Wednesday.
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