'Vile, Abusive, Obscene And Defamatory': Bombay HC Orders Social Media Platforms To Take Down Posts Targeting Nitin Gadkari, Family

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted interim relief to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari by directing social media platforms and intermediaries to take down defamatory, abusive and deepfake content targeting him. The court observed that the posts were “vile, abusive, obscene and defamatory” and had no place on public platforms. 

Justice Arif Doctor passed the order while hearing Gadkari’s suit seeking the removal of fake and defamatory content allegedly linking him and his family to the Centre’s E20 ethanol-blending programme.

“These posts, on the face of it, are abusive, vile and obscene. Such material should have no place on public platform, which is accessible to everyone including young,” the judge observed while holding that Gadkari had made out a case for ad-interim relief.

The court also questioned social media platforms, including Meta, X Corp and Google LLC, on whether they had any mechanism to detect and remove such content without forcing victims to approach the court.

“With all this technology at your disposal, don’t you have some mechanism where there should be triggers? If someone uploads something vulgar or abusive, it should immediately be picked up and deleted. This is absolutely vile. Someone is just spewing venom,” Justice Doctor remarked.

The court noted that Meta and Google had agreed to remove the material identified in the suit and accepted their statement. It further directed that if Gadkari comes across similar content in future, he can notify the intermediaries, who must take necessary action.

When Meta’s counsel submitted that some content could amount to “fair” criticism, Gadkari’s counsel Sandeep Laddha clarified that the minister was not seeking to curb fair criticism. Agreeing, the court said only abusive material and deepfake content would be communicated for removal. If there was any “grey area”, the platforms would be free to approach the court.

The matter has been posted for hearing after four weeks, by when the respondents are to file their replies.

In his suit, Gadkari has sought an immediate takedown of the allegedly fake and fabricated posts, a permanent injunction against their circulation and damages of Rs11 crore.

According to the suit, AI-generated and deepfake posts falsely claim Gadkari and his family benefited financially from the government’s ethanol-blended fuel programme. Gadkari has maintained he has no role in formulating or implementing the E20 policy and said the suit is not intended to stifle fair criticism, but only to stop false and defamatory content.

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