Delhi High Court issues summonses to Wikipedia editors in ANI defamation case
The Wikimedia Foundation’s counsel told the court that data about the users would be submitted in a sealed cover to keep their identities from becoming public.
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The Delhi High Court on Thursday issued summonses to the editors who added an allegedly defamatory description of Asian News International to the news agency’s Wikipedia page, Bar and Bench reported.
Justice Subramonium Prasad issued the directive after taking into account an earlier order pronounced by a division bench of the court, which allowed Wikipedia to serve summonses to the editors without publicly disclosing their identity.
Wikipedia is a free online collaborative encyclopaedia edited by volunteers. It is hosted by the United States-based non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.
The summonses on Thursday were issued as part of a defamation case filed by ANI seeking the removal of the description from its Wikipedia page. The description says that the news agency has been criticised for serving as a “propaganda tool” of the current Union government.
During the proceedings, the court threatened to order the Union government to block Wikipedia in India if the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the website, did not provide details about those responsible for adding the description to ANI’s page.
On October 28, the Wikimedia Foundation told the court that it was ready to share basic subscriber information about its users who edited the page and also volunteered to serve the summonses to them.
On Thursday, advocate Sidhant Kumar, representing ANI, told Prasad about the developments that had taken place...
