Mumbai:
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday ordered the immediate removal of “abusive”, “vile”, “obscene”, and AI-generated posts on social media platforms and websites targeting Union Minister Nitin Gadkari over the ethanol-blended petrol controversy.
A bench of Justice Arif Doctor directed that all the content highlighted by Nitin Gadkari in his suit to be taken down after observing that the content was prima facie defamatory.
The court also questioned platforms such as Meta, X Corp and Google LLC over the lack of mechanism to remove abusive content without the person having to approach the courts.
“These posts, on the face of it, are abusive, vile and obscene,” the court said.
Observing that such content should not have a place online, the court said it could be accessed by anyone, including the younger generation. It added that online platforms should voluntarily take down such posts.
The court further directed that any similar content identified by the minister in the future should also be removed. “There has to be some mechanism where online platforms take down the content without the person having to approach the courts,” it said.
Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, had filed a civil suit against Meta Platforms, X Corp, Google LLC, and unidentified online content creators over allegedly defamatory AI-generated deepfake videos and posts linked to the government’s E20 ethanol-blended petrol policy.
The minister sought the immediate takeown of videos and posts that allegedly flasely claimed that he and his family stood to gain financially from the policy.
He has also sougth Rs 11 crore in damages, alleging that the content caused irreparable harm to his reputation and personality rights.
In his plea, the minister said the ethanol-blending programme is administered entirely by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and not byhis department.
The plea states that the legal action is aimed at holding major social media intermediaries accountable for hosting fabricated and derogatory content, rather than targeting ordinary public discussion.
The court posted the matter for further hearing after four weeks and directed the respondents to file their affidavits in reply to the minister’s plea.
With inputs from PTI
