On Thursday, the Delhi High Court issued a notice following a contempt petition submitted by ANI Media Private Limited. ANI has claimed that Wikipedia, the popular and free online encyclopedia, has been withholding information about edits to an entry on the news agency.
What exactly happened between Wikipedia & ANI
This was after ANI claimed Wikipedia had defamed them by allowing certain edits to a page with information about the news agency. The alleged edit cited ANI as "the propaganda tool" of the Indian government.
The court had ordered the international encyclopedia company to reveal details about three accounts that made the edits, but ANI informed the court that this has not been disclosed. [Source: Free Press Journal]
Wikipedia's attorney stated that because the organization was not positioned in India, therefore they needed time to appear in court. However, the court was not impressed with this declaration. The Delhi High Court strongly opposed the argument. The Court even warned the online encyclopedia company, saying, "If you don't like India, please don't work in India... we will ask government to block your site."
As reported by the legal news website Bar and Bench, the judge has said, "It is not a question of the defendant not being an entity in India. We will close your business transactions here. We will ask the government to block Wikipedia... Earlier also you took this position." He had further remarked, "If you don't like India, please don't work in India.”
Wikipedia’s argument
Wikimedia Foundation released a statement in July on the case filed by ANI, identifying itself as a "technology host" and elaborating that it does not add to or edit content published on Wikipedia. They further informed that the content is "determined by its global community of volunteer editors... who compile and share information on notable subjects.”
ANI has already claimed damages worth ₹ 2 crore from ANI with directions to remove the edits and hold back publishing of such content in the future.
The widely used free online encyclopedia was founded in 2001, by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. It is run by the San Fransisco-based Wikimedia Foundation.
Bhavish Aggarwal tweets about it
OLA founder Bhavish Aggarwal has recently tweeted about this incident. “Another proof of why we need to build our tech stack in India. These platforms don’t even comply with Indian laws and then even ignore court judgements! Also, just look at Twitter’s arm twisting of the Brazilian Supreme Court.”
/startuppedia/media/media_files/zqIJTLPgkP461xRcnOWN.png)