Delhi HC now directs Facebook to reveal identity of person behind anonymous sexual harassment allegations against Subodh Gupta

Noting that Instagram has not submitted the particulars of the person behind an account which made series of anonymous sexual harassment allegations against artist Subodh Gupta, the Delhi High Court has now directed the owner of the social media platform, Facebook Inc to furnish such details to it in a sealed cover..“The defendant No.2 has also not complied with the direction contained in paragraph 11 of the order dated 18th September, 2019….On the statement aforesaid of the senior counsel for the defendant No.4, defendant No.3 Facebook Inc. which is stated to control defendant No.2 Instagram LLC are now again directed to, on the next date of hearing, furnish to this Court in a sealed envelope the particulars of the person/ entity behind the Instagram Account Herdsceneand..“, a Single Judge Bench of Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw has ordered..Subodh Gupta had moved the High Court last month, aggrieved by the “defamatory content” on an anonymous Instagram account, ‘Herdsceneand’..After hearing the counsel for Gupta on September 18, the Court had noted that neither was none of the alleged victims of sexual harassment named in the allegations nor had any person identified himself/herself as one. It was also recorded that no legal or other proceedings were initiated against Gupta in relation to the sexual harassment allegations made by the account holder..It had thus opined,.“Prima facie, it appears that the allegations as made in the allegedly defamatory contents, cannot be permitted to be made in public domain/published without being backed by legal recourse. The same if permitted, is capable of mischief.”.Consequently, the Court had passed an order directing ‘Herdsceneand’ to restrain from posting on its Instagram account any content pertaining to Gupta. The Court had also directed Instagram LLC, Facebook, Inc, Facebook Ireland Ltd, Google Inc and Google India Pvt. Ltd to remove/takedown/block access to the defamatory content pertaining to Gupta..Additionally, Instagram LCC was also directed to furnish the particulars of the person/entity behind the Instagram account ‘Herdsceneand’ in a sealed cover before the next date of hearing i.e. September 30..When the matter was taken up on September 30, the Court, at the outset, noted that its earlier direction with respect to revealing the identity of the Instagram account user was not complied with..Meanwhile, counsel for Facebook Ireland Ltd stated that it had no control over Facebook Inc. which owned Instagram LLC. A request was thus made to the Court to delete Facebook Ireland Ltd as well as Instagram LLC from the array of parties..Facebook Ireland Ltd added that it would the furnish the internet address of Facebook Inc to Court to facilitate compliance with its orders..In view of the assertions made by Facebook Ireland Ltd, the Court proceeded to direct Facebook Inc. to furnish the particulars of the person/ entity behind the Instagram Account Herdsceneand in a sealed cover before the next date of hearing..The Court also asked Gupta to communicate to Google Inc the URLs which contain the defamatory content. On receipt of the intimation, Google Inc would remove such URLs within 72 hours as well as block certain URLs to magazines and newspapers publications that appear in the search results, the Court directed..The matter would be taken up next on November 18..Subodh Gupta was represented by Senior Advocates Kailash Vasdev, Sandeep Sethi with Advocates Neoma Vasdev and Siddharth Garg. .Facebook Ireland Ltd was represented by Senior Advocate Parag Tripathi with Advocates Ajit Warrior, Richa Srivastava, Shijo George, Nayantara Narayan, Laltaksh, Dhruv Bhatnagar, Mishika Bajpai, Malikah Mehra, Ujval Mohan..Google was represented by Advocates Neel Mason, Vihan Dang, Sanukta Banerjie and Shivang Sharma. .[Read Order]