Tata Sky Vs LinkedIn: Delhi HC Seeks Details On Grievance Officer, SOP From Platform

The Delhi High Court has asked social media platform LinkedIn to put on record the details of its grievance officers and the standard operating procedure (SOP) it follows whenever a complaint is received under the Information Technology Rules, 2021.

The HC also asked LinkedIn to place on record “the rules applicable to persons creating LinkedIn profiles, as per LinkedIn’s own policy”.

The order came on a lawsuit filed by Tata Sky Ltd against LinkedIn and other parties. Last year, Tata Sky changed its name and identity to Tata Play. In its lawsuit, the company alleged that numerous individuals had created profiles on LinkedIn, falsely indicating themselves as its employees.

The lawsuit also said that several people were also “unlawfully” using the name ‘TATA SKY’ in their profile descriptions on the platform without any authorisation, licence, or permission and falsely portraying themselves as retailers of Tata Sky.

“If the Plaintiff (Tata Sky) has any outstanding issue or suggestions in respect of manner in which the grievances are addressed by the Defendant No. 1-Linkedin, the Plaintiff may also place its own note on record,” Justice Prathiba M Singh ordered.

“In addition, it is made clear that the details of the grievance officers in terms of 2021 Rules including the physical and email address, shall be published openly for the public access on the website of Linkedin,” the court added.

It is pertinent to note that under the IT Rules, 2021, all social media intermediaries are mandated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to appoint grievance officers and make their contact details public. 

The emphasis on grievance officers strengthened further last year as the government also mandated forming Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) to address the complaints of users against social media intermediaries. 

Earlier this year, the ministry launched GAC. If any social media user is dissatisfied with the actions of the grievance officers of any platform, they can now take their complaints to the GACs instead of going to the courts.