High court requires Facebook and Google to take down content in Delhi

The Delhi High Court (HC) ruled an order obliging Facebook to take down posts containing sexual harassment accusations against Indian contemporary artist Subodh Gupta. The order also required several news websites which reported the accusations against the artist and Google to delist links from its main page. The accusations were anonymously made on Instagram, subsequently the claims were also posted on Facebook and reproduced by various websites. The HC required Instagram to provide the identification of the person running the account who made the comments and, considering the significance of the accusations, ordered the defendants to take down the alleged defamatory content until the case is heard in November. Google and Facebook are intermediaries under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and hold limit liability for defamation under the act.