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.
Considering the plea, the court on Thursday ordered Wikipedia’s authorised representative to remain personally present before the court on the next date of hearing.
“The Wikimedia Foundation holds the utmost respect for the Hon’ble Delhi High Court. Our Legal Department is currently reviewing the recent order, and we are committed to taking all necessary actions in accordance with applicable laws to defend Wikipedians’ right to contribute and share reliable information. It is surprising that the petitioners chose to initiate contempt proceedings before the Foundation could fully apprise the Hon’ble Court,” Wikimedia Foundation said in a statement following the court hearing.
“Information on the Wikipedia article about ANI is supported by multiple secondary sources that are publicly available. The article is currently under extended confirmed protection, which means changes can be made to the article only by user accounts that meet the criteria of being at least 30 days old and having 500 edits to make the changes,” it said.
It added, “This step is a preventive measure taken to mitigate rapid editing and vandalism on Wikipedia articles. Experienced users can continue to improve the Wikipedia article about ANI in accordance with the applicable Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines on reliability, verifiability, neutrality and conflict of interest editing.”
Published - September 05, 2024 10:32 pm IST
