Can A WhatsApp Group Administrator Be Held Liable For Content Posted By A Group Member?

Article by Vijay Pal Dalmia, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and Delhi High Court, Partner & Head of Intellectual Property Laws Division, Vaish Associates Advocates, India

On February 25, 2021 the Press Information Bureau released some telling statistics to go along with the recently announced Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 ("IT Rules 2021") by the Ministry of Information. According to it, Indians are using these platforms in a very significant way and in numbers which are unmatched anywhere else in the world; Some portals, which publish analysis about social media platforms and which have not been disputed, have reported the following numbers as user base of major social media platforms in India¹: