Meta's situation is worse than a government department: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said Meta's "situation is worse than a government department" while criticising it for not sending a proper reply to TV Today’s plea against the blocking of their Instagram page, Harper’s Bazaar India.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora said, “Your situation is 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 court said.

Meta should improve its functioning or face action, the court said.

TV Today had moved the High Court after Harper's Bazaar India's Instagram page (@bazaarindia) was blocked on a third party's complaint of copyright violation.

 

TV Today has also challenged the constitutionality of Rule 3(1)(c) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The rule says an intermediary shall periodically inform its users, at least once every year, that in case of non-compliance with rules and regulations, privacy policy or user agreement for access or usage of the computer resource of such intermediary, it has the right to terminate the access or usage rights of the users to the computer resource immediately or remove non-compliant information or both, as the case may be.

TV Today said Rule 3(1)(c) allows an intermediary to block access to accounts without providing a fair chance for users to contest the decision.

Meanwhile, Meta told the court that Harper’s Bazaar’s Instagram page was blocked after three copyright strikes. It added that it gets a large number of requests daily and files a report with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) too.

The court said that just because Meta has millions of users, it does not mean that it would not put its house in order.

The case will be heard again on Wednesday.