‘Worse Than A Govt Department’: Delhi HC Rebukes Meta Over Media Firm’s Improper Response To Plea

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday came down heavily on tech giant Meta for not sending a proper reply to TV Today’s plea against the blocking of their Instagram page, Harper’s Bazaar India.

According to a report on Bar And Bench, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said Meta’s functioning appeared to be worse than that of a government department.

“Your situation is worse than the government department. Please be careful. You have to be alive to the situation. Your system is not working. Your system does not work. It has to work,” the court was quoted as saying.

Meta should improve its functioning or face action, the court warned.

The Bench made the remarks while hearing a plea filed by TV Today, which had moved the High Court after the Harper’s Bazaar India Instagram page (@bazaarindia) was blocked based on a third party’s complaint that copyright was violated.

The blocking has also led TV Today to challenge the constitutionality of Rule 3 (1) (c) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

TV Today has argued that Rule 3 (1)(c) allows an intermediary to block access to accounts without providing a fair opportunity for users to contest such a decision. Certain ambiguities in the IT Rules are being misused to do so, the court was told.

Advocate Hrishikesh Baruah appeared on the news platform and argued that they had written thrice to Meta with their grievance and even approached the grievance redressal officer. Each time, TV Today got a response that it had not written to the right channel, the Court was told.

Advocate Tejas Karia appeared for Meta and told the Bench that Harper’s Bazaar’s Instagram page was blocked following three copyright strikes.

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