Delhi HC admits Facebook appeal against global takedown of content on Baba Ramdev

Bengaluru:  The Delhi High Court on Thursday admitted Facebook’s appeal against the court’s order last week on imposing a global injunction to takedown defamatory content of Baba Ramdev found on its platform.

The Division bench of the HC comprising Justice Muralidhar and Justice Talwant Singh clarified that while there would be no interim stay granted on the global injunction, the respondents - Baba Ramdev - cannot move a contempt application before disposal of the appeal.

This means that the social media giant will not face contempt proceedings for not following global takedown order for the time being.

Facebook argued that last week’s order on global takedown was against national sovereignty and international comity. It said the order interferes with laws prevailing in other countries.

Facebook also said Baba Ramdev did not show a prima facie case of irreparable damage for seeking global injunction. Therefore, the Delhi HC could have erred in giving such relief. The company claimed that taking down content only in India was enough o deal with Baba Ramdev’s reputational concerns.

It said that even though Baba Ramdev was aware of the persons who uploaded the content on the platform, they were not made party to the case. Moreover, the injunction order was passed despite alternate remedies available to the court.

Last week, the court ruled that all offending material that had been uploaded from within India on to the platforms’ computer resource or computer network would have to be disabled and blocked globally. The court said in its order that when platforms disable content on their own for policy violations, it is done globally. Therefore, it said, there is no reason why court orders ought not to be global.