Court Orders Global Take Down Of Content Uploaded From India

• The Delhi High Court has directed prominent  social media companies to take down defamatory content uploaded from India, on a global basis.
• The order interpreted  the intermediary safe harbor  granted by Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 ¹ ("IT Act") in a manner that would require intermediaries to block all unlawful content uploaded from India, on a global basis, upon receiving a valid take down order.
• Affected intermediaries include global majors such as Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Background

On October 23, 2019, the Delhi High Court ("Court") issued a global take down order ("Order") ², in the matter of Baba Ramdev and Anr. ("Plaintiffs") v. Facebook Inc. and Ors. ("Defendants"). The Order was issued in a suit filed by Baba Ramdev (a famous religious and business personality in India) against various social media intermediaries (including Facebook, Google and Twitter) as their platforms were being used to circulate defamatory