Take down defamatory content on ANI: HC to Wikipedia

NEW DELHI: Delhi high court ordered global platform Wikipedia on Wednesday to take down alleged defamatory statements relating to the news agency Asian News International (ANI).

Justice Subramonium Prasad granted interim relief on a plea moved by ANI, whose suit accusing Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia's parent company, is pending. It is accused of permitting defamatory edits on ANI page.

HC also restrained editors running the concerned page from making any further "defamatory" publications. A copy of the order is awaited.

HC had last year directed Wikipedia to disclose toANI subscriber details of the three individuals who allegedly uploaded defamatory edits.

Challenging the same before a division bench, Wikipedia failed to get an interim stay even as the larger bench took a dim view of a dedicated page covering court proceedings. The matter is now before SC.

In an earlier hearing, HC also flagged as "dangerous" the manner in which the online encyclopaedia operates by allowing users to edit pages hosted by it. ANI has maintained that although Wikipedia represented its information as a matter of fact, it is an "aggregator of defamation".

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