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2023 Supreme(Del) 576

C. HARI SHANKAR
Aaradhya Bachchan – Appellant
Versus
Bollywood Time – Respondent


Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
Mr. Dayan Krishnan, Sr. Advocate with Mr. Pravin Anand, Mr. Ameet Naik, Ms. Vaishali Mittal, Ms. Madhu Gadodia, Mr. Siddhant Chamola, Mr. Shivang Sharma, Mr. Hersh Desai, Ms. Pallavi Bhatnagar, Ms. Megha Chandra, Mr. Harsh Jha, Mr. Sujoy Mukherjee and Ms. Tarini Kulkarni, Advs., Ms. Mamta Rani Jha, Ms. Shruttima Ehersa and Mr. Rohan Ahuja, Advs. for Defendant 10/Google LLC

Judgement Key Points

Certainly. Based on the provided legal document, the key points are as follows:

  1. The judgment emphasizes the duty of significant social media intermediaries, such as YouTube, to make reasonable efforts to prevent the dissemination of harmful content and to comply with the statutory regime, including the amended 2021 Intermediary Guidelines Rules (!) (!) .

  2. The case involved a minor and celebrity child who filed a suit against the dissemination of misleading and harmful videos about her health and privacy on YouTube. The court found a prima facie case in favor of the plaintiffs and granted ad interim relief, including injunctions to restrain the dissemination of specific videos and to require the disclosure and deactivation of such content (!) (!) (!) .

  3. The court highlighted the importance of compliance with the amended 2021 Intermediary Guidelines Rules, especially the obligations of significant social media intermediaries to proactively identify and remove harmful content, particularly content that is harmful to children (!) (!) (!) .

  4. The responsibilities of intermediaries extend beyond passive moderation; they are now required to make reasonable efforts to prevent hosting, display, or sharing of prohibited content and to act promptly upon being informed of such content (!) (!) (!) .

  5. The court underscored that the definition of a "significant social media intermediary" includes platforms with a large user base, such as YouTube, making the rules applicable to them (!) .

  6. The court directed the defendant (Google LLC) to disclose the identity and contact details of the users responsible for the offending content, to delist and deactivate the videos, and to cooperate with the court's orders to prevent further dissemination of harmful content (!) (!) (!) .

  7. It was also ordered that the access to infringing content be blocked by the relevant authorities, and that the intermediary implement measures to identify and remove similar content in the future (!) .

  8. The court emphasized the importance of immediate action by intermediaries upon notification of harmful content, aligning with the stricter responsibilities introduced by the amendments to the guidelines (!) (!) .

  9. Various procedural directions were issued, including the filing of pleadings, responses, and additional documents, as well as the scheduling of further hearings, to ensure the case proceeds efficiently (!) (!) (!) .

  10. The court also granted exemptions for certain procedural requirements, such as serving notices, and allowed extensions for filing court fees and filing additional evidence, facilitating the smooth progression of the case (!) (!) .

These points collectively reflect the court's stance on the responsibilities of social media platforms regarding harmful content, especially involving minors, and the procedural framework established for this case.


JUDGMENT :

C. HARI SHANKAR, J.

CS(COMM) 230/2023

1. Plaintiff 1 Aaradhya Bachchan is the daughter of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Bachchan and granddaughter of Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan, all of whom are celebrities in their own right. The facts of this case reveal that Plaintiff 1, at the tender age of 11, is having to suffer the vicissitudes which have visited her as sequelae of her celebrity status.

2. Shorn of superfluities, the grievance of Plaintiff 1 in the present plaint, which has been filed through her father (Plaintiff 2), is that, though she is a healthy school going child, studying in Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Mumbai, certain miscreants, merely for the sake of puerile publicity, have, over a period of time, been circulating videos on YouTube, stating that Plaintiff 1 is critically ill, to the extent that one of the videos even claimed that she was no more. Apparently, morphed pictures have also been used in the said videos, so as to lend colour to the information that they seek to convey, with one of the videos even showing a child surrounded by wreaths. The videos also invite subscriptions from those who are viewing them.

3. Such videos, alleges the

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