The Delhi High Court has taken a strong stance against Wikipedia, issuing a contempt notice to Wikimedia Foundation Inc. for their failure to comply with a court order. The order demanded the disclosure of information regarding edits made to the Wikipedia page of the Indian news agency, Asian News International (ANI). Justice Navin Chawla, presiding over the case, expressed his displeasure, stating, “We will not take it anymore. If you don’t like India, don’t work here.” He went on to warn, “I will impose contempt…We will close your business transactions here. We will ask the government to block Wikipedia…Earlier also you people have taken this argument. If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India.” The court has summoned an authorized Wikimedia representative to appear in person at the next hearing in October.
This legal battle stems from a defamation suit filed by ANI against Wikipedia, accusing the platform of hosting defamatory content on their page. On July 9th, the court issued a summons to Wikimedia following ANI’s claims that the platform allowed defamatory edits to their page. In response, Wikimedia stated that they “generally do not add, edit or determine content published on Wikipedia” and that the content is managed by a global community of volunteer editors.
The situation escalated when, on August 20th, ANI argued in court that Wikipedia did not dispute the involvement of three individuals (also defendants in the defamation suit) who were not administrators on the platform. This led the court to order Wikipedia to disclose the subscriber details of these individuals within two weeks. However, ANI filed a contempt petition, accusing Wikipedia of non-compliance, leading to the issuance of the contempt notice.
In their petition, ANI seeks to prevent Wikipedia from publishing defamatory content and demands the removal of existing content. They also claim damages of ₹ 2 crore. According to ANI, the Wikipedia page falsely accuses them of serving as a propaganda tool for the central government, spreading misinformation from fake news networks, and misreporting events, allegations that ANI claims are intended to damage their reputation.
