The Delhi High Court has issued a contempt of court notice to Wikipedia for not complying with the Court’s orders to disclose information about the people making the edits on ANI’s Wikipedia page.
The decision came in the wake of the High Court hearing of a defamation suit filed by Asian News International (ANI) accusing Wikipedia of hosting defamatory descriptions of the news agency. The alleged defamatory description states that ANI “has been criticised for having served as a propaganda tool for the incumbent central government, distributing materials from a vast network of fake news websites, and misreporting events.”
Wikipedia claims to be an open source free online content encyclopaedia which is maintained and edited by a community of volunteers known as Wikipedians. The website has come under severe scrutiny over the years due to its alleged rampant misinformative and misleading content.
The news agency ANI is now seeking removal of the defamatory contents on its page and demanding monetary damage caused by the posted misinformation. Earlier, the HC had ordered Wikipedia to provide details of three people who made the edits on the ANI page. Failing which, on 5th september ANI filed a contempt application against Wikipedia for not complying with the court orders.
Wikipedia, represented through advocate Tine Abraham told the court that it has to make certain submissions regarding the court order, and it took them time to appear because Wikipedia is not based in India.
Justice Navin Chawla took strong objection to the submission pointing that this argument had been taken by Wikipedia in earlier matters as well and had been rejected. “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,” Justice Navin Chawla said.
The court has now further ordered an authorised representative of Wikipedia to be personally present on October 25, when the matter will be heard next.
-By Jyotirmay Kaushal