NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Thursday warned Wikipedia it will block the website if it doesn’t comply with India’s laws and issued a contempt of court notice.
HC took a strong view of the open-source platform’s failure to furnish details as per earlier orders on subscribers who edited the page of news agency Asian News International (ANI). The agency had filed a defamation suit against Wikipedia, accusing the platform of allowing defamatory edits referring to the news agency as a “propaganda tool” for govt.
Don’t like India, please don’t work here: HC to Wiki
“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 govt to block Wikipedia… Earlier also you people have taken this argument. If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India,” the judge told the counsel for Wikipedia after it didn’t disclose details of three subscriber accounts who made the edit on ANI’s page.
The court’s warning came when the counsel for Wikipedia argued that the company is not based in India and sought time to make further submissions, instead of adhering to the court’s earlier order. While issuing a contempt notice on the plea filed by ANI, HC directed Wikipedia to ensure its authorised representative is present in person on Oct 25, the next date of hearing.
The news agency has sought to restrain the online portal from allowing allegedly defamatory edited content to remain on the page about ANI on Wikipedia and also sought its removal, apart from Rs 2 crore as damages.
ANI has contended the content in the description is defamatory and Wikipedia, an intermediary, is a platform used as a public utility and as such cannot behave as a private sector firm.