On Thursday, 5th September, the Delhi High Court sent a notice in response to a contempt petition brought by ANI Media Private Limited. The petition asserted that Wikipedia had failed to comply with a court order seeking information about the individuals who had altered the media entity’s Wikipedia page. Wikipedia’s attorney claimed that because the organization was not based in India, it took longer for them to appear in court. However, Justice Navin Chawla strongly objected to this argument.
If the platform did not abide by the court’s orders, he warned he will ask the government to ban it in addition to imposing contempt. “I will impose contempt. It is not a question of Defendant No. 1 (Wikipedia) 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,” the court came down heavily on Wikipedia.
During the next hearing on 25th October, the Court mandated that an authorised Wikipedia representative appear in person. Wikipedia is being sued by ANI for slander. According to the news organisation, Wikipedia permitted defamatory alterations on its page that labelled ANI the current government’s “propaganda tool.” Wikipedia was previously summoned by the high court to provide details regarding the three individuals who altered the ANI Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia appeared before the court on 20th August in response to the summons. ANI emphasised that Wikipedia failed to refute the fact that the three parties named as defendants in the defamation lawsuit were not its administrators. The court ordered Wikipedia to provide ANI with the subscriber data of the three people who had access to it within two weeks of receiving the aforementioned request. ANI contended that the injunction had not been followed in a contempt application that it filed with the high court on 5th September.
ANI has attempted to prevent Wikipedia from posting anything that was purportedly derogatory on the news agency’s page on the platform. It has also asked for the content to be taken down. ANI has also demanded damages from Wikipedia to the amount of Rs. 2 crores. According to its Wikipedia entry, ANI “has been criticized for misreporting events and serving as a propaganda tool for the incumbent central government by distributing materials from a vast network of fake news websites.”
ANI stated in its lawsuit against the Wikimedia Foundation (parent company of Wikipedia) and its officials that the latter has purposefully discredited the news agency’s goodwill and tarnished its reputation by publishing stuff that is blatantly false and defamatory. Wikimedia officials, according to ANI, have taken a proactive role in deleting the edits to reverse the content. “Thus, the conduct of Defendant No. 1 has resulted in a loss of its safe-harbour protection under section 79(1) of the Act, and made it liable for hosting and publishing defamatory content,” the suit pointed out.
The lawyer for Wikipedia informed the court that as the website is not based in India, they had to provide specific documents in relation to the court’s decision, and their appearance before the court took longer than expected. However, the court expressed that the claim had been put forth by Wikipedia previously and was already dismissed. It issued a caution and warned to hold the platform in contempt of court.
