Meta, Google tell Delhi High Court they can't proactively act as 'super censor'
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Meta, Google tell Delhi High Court they can't proactively act as 'super censor'")
Former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal leaves from the Delhi High Court after hearing on his recusal petition Photograph: (ANI)
Meta and Google told the Delhi High Court they cannot proactively monitor unauthorised courtroom videos, arguing that liability lies with uploaders and not intermediary platforms.
Meta and Google have told the Delhi High Court that they can't proactively monitor the unauthorised publication and dissemination of courtroom videos on their platforms. Meta stated it cannot act as a "super censor" or referee over daily content generation across Facebook and Instagram. Liability must rest strictly on the actual publisher or uploader.
The submission was made in response to a Public Interest Litigation filed by advocate Vaibhav Singh alleging illegal recording and circulation of the April 13 hearing of Arvind Kejriwal seeking the recusal of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma from the CBI's Delhi liquor policy case. The petitioner sought the removal of the videos from all the platforms. The petition also mentioned AAP leaders Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Sanjeev Jha, Punardeep Sawhney, Jarnail Singh, Mukesh Ahlawat, and Vinay Mishra, as well as the Congress's Digvijaya Singh and journalist Ravish Kumar.
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Meta responded that intermediaries are in no way responsible for user-generated content. It does not own or control user-generated content and has no obligation to proactively remove such content unless notified. Google also took a similar position, suggesting the functional limitation of monitoring user-generated content, including unauthorised recordings of court hearings, and determine wether it is unlawful, unless notified. They described themselves as intermediaries and suggested that responsibilities, if any, lie with the user or content creator.
On April 23, the court directed the takedown of the social media posts containing videos of the court proceedings. The division bench of Justice V. Kameswar Rao and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora has impleaded the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) as a respondent. The court noted that several respondents had not yet been served with notices, and the bench has adjourned the matter to August 27 for the next hearing.
