Wikipedia Asked To Pull Down Page On ANI Defamation Dispute By Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court, in a major setback for Wikipedia, on Wednesday asked the platform to take down the page about its dispute with the news agency ANI within 36 hours.

The case is now slated to be heard next week. The issue at hand stems from a Rs 2 crore defamation case filed by ANI against the online encyclopedia-like platform for having a negative description of the news agency.

The current page describing the dispute is titled ‘Asian News International v. Wikipedia Foundation’. It mentions that the judge hearing the dispute has "threatened" the platform to order the government to shut down Wikipedia in the country.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela was hearing an appeal by Wikipedia against the direction of a single judge. The single-judge bench had previously asked the platform to disclose the names of users who made changes to ANI’s page.

However, the bench remarked that it will hear the submissions of Wikipedia only when the page regarding the dispute with ANI is taken down.

On July 9, 2024, the court issued summons to Wikipedia and its agents, directing the platform to disclose the subscriber details of those allegedly responsible for the edits to ANI page within two weeks. Despite this, the platform failed to meet the Sept. 3 deadline, prompting ANI to file a contempt petition.

The said ANI page on Wikipedia is alleged to have called the news agency a propaganda tool.

During the earlier hearings, Wikipedia had denied any formal connection to the individuals accused of making the edits. Nevertheless, the court had ordered the platform to share the relevant subscriber details to allow ANI to serve legal notices.