Meta’s Functioning Worse Than A Govt Department: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court (HC) on Tuesday (April 30) reportedly pulled up Meta and said that the functioning of the social media giant is “worse than (that of) a government department”.

As per news agency PTI, the HC made the remarks while hearing a plea filed by media conglomerate TV Today Network against the blocking of its Instagram page Harper’s Bazaar India. 

“You are far worse than a 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 bench was quoted as saying.

The bench, comprising acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet PS Arora, observed that the social media giant failed to properly respond to the plea. It also directed Meta to “put its house in order” or face an order castigating it.

The bench noted that the court would have to make a prima facie observation that the social media platform is taking TV Today’s counsel in circles if the complaint of the media group is not acted upon by Meta. 

TV Today’s counsel argued that the media house wrote an email to Meta about their grievance (blocking of Instagram page) but the only response they received was that they had not written to the correct channel. 

Retorting back, Meta’s counsel said that the Instagram page was blocked following three instances of copyright violations and added that the email received by the media group did not imply rejection of the complaint but was rather an automatic response.

As the hearing unfolded, the HC asked the media group’s counsel to file their complaint in the presence of Meta’s counsel and return back. As the bench convened again, the petitioner claimed that its request had been rejected by Meta yet again.

Annoyed by the submission, the bench told Meta, “You cannot be stubborn with us. Follow what we are saying. You’re not able to understand what we are saying…We have been more than liberal with you. We have given you enough time to set your house in order…You may be having billions of users but your house is not in order.”

The HC then directed the counsel of Meta to ensure the complaint of the TV Today Network is entertained and “decided upon properly”. The court listed the matter for further hearing on Wednesday (May 1).

At the heart of the contention is the petition filed by TV Today Network related to blocking of the Instagram page of its subsidiary based on a copyright violation claim filed by a third party. The plea also challenges the constitutionality of Rule 3(1)(c) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

This is the latest round of trouble for Meta which has been in the line of government’s fire for a host of reasons including failure to crack the whip on fake news, lax compliance with Centre’s directives and growing concerns around deepfakes. There is also an ongoing antitrust case against the social media giant and a legal case involving its 2021 WhatsApp privacy policy.