Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
The Delhi High Court on Friday directed the government’s Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) to decide within 15 days on an appeal seeking the removal of a YouTube video uploaded by Dhruv Rathee, where he claimed Hindu deities Lord Ram, Sita and Lord Krishna consumed meat and alcohol.
The GAC, functioning under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), allows users to appeal decisions made by digital platforms on complaints related to online content or accounts, including cases where a platform rejects a request, fails to respond, or issues a decision that the user is dissatisfied with.
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The court also warned that any non-compliance with its order would be viewed seriously.
During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, appearing for the centre, argued that YouTube ought to have exercised due diligence and immediately removed the allegedly “objectionable and hate-inciting content”.
Rathee, a popular YouTuber with 32.4 million subscribers on the video platform, had argued in a video titled ‘Can Hindus Eat Beef? | Kerala Story 2 Exposed’ that Lord Ram, Sita, and Lord Krishna consumed meat and alcohol.
ASG Sharma told the court that the content uploaded by Rathee was “harmful and divisive”. He argued that Google should either state before the court that it would comply and remove the video or the court could proceed on the basis of observations made by the division bench.
He further argued that Google’s counsel should undertake to remove the content and ensure that material which allegedly creates social discord and hurts the sentiments of the majority community is not allowed on the platform.
Google’s counsel informed the High Court that the company had already submitted its response to petitioner advocate Amita Sachdeva and that an appeal had been filed before the GAC.
After the hearing, Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma directed the government body to decide the appeal within 15 days. The court also observed that any disregard of its order would be taken seriously.
The order came in a petition filed by advocate Amita Sachdeva, who had objected to a video uploaded by Rathee on YouTube on March 21.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
