FB moves Delhi HC challenging order to globally remove links to video disparaging Ramdev
New Delhi:Social media giant Facebook on Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court challenging an order directing it to remove, block or disable on a global basis links to a video containing defamatory allegations against yoga guru Ramdev.
The plea was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar which agreed to list it for hearing on Thursday before an appropriate bench.
It has now been listed before a bench of justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh for Thursday.
A single judge of the high court had on October 23 directed Facebook, Google, its subsidiary YouTube, and Twitter to forthwith remove, block or disable on a global basis links to a video containing defamatory allegations against Ramdev.
Justice Pratibha M Singh had held that merely 'geo-blocking' or disabling access to the defamatory content to viewers from India, as agreed to by the social media platforms, would not be sufficient as users residing here can gain access to it by other means.
"There is an obligation upon the intermediary (social media platforms) to disable access, which would have to be read as meaning to completely disable access and not partially disable access," the court had said.
Observing that "the race between technology and the law could be termed as a hare and tortoise race - as technology gallops, the law tries to keep pace", the court had said the provisions of the Information Technology law have to be interpreted in a manner so as to ensure judicial orders are effective and "not toothless".
The court had directed the social media platforms that all the offending material which has been uploaded from within India on to the computer network of the platforms "would have to be disabled and blocked on a global basis".
The court issued the direction after the social media platforms had said that while they have no objection to blocking the URLs and disabling the same, insofar as access in India is concerned, they were opposed to removal/blocking/disabling the defamatory content on a global basis.
The defamatory video contained excerpts of a book on Ramdev that were ordered to be deleted by the high court in September last year.
The high court had on September 29, 2018 restrained the publisher and author of the book "Godman from Tycoon" from publishing it till the offending portions were deleted, the judge noted.
In the October 23 judgement, the court had noted that viewing the video or reading its transcript give an impression that Ramdev "has been involved in various murders, financial irregularities, misuse of animal parts, etc".
"Thus, the content of the video to the extent it contains paraphrasing of content which was directed to be removed from the book is held to be defamatory. A perusal of the video transcript and the offending portion of the book show the clear similarity and prima facie, establish that the video is derived from the book and hence is defamatory.
"In any event, this issue is moot in as much as the video begins by stating that it is based on the book. Thus, the defamatory nature of the video cannot be disputed," the court had said.
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Death toll in attack on Kyiv apartment building now stands at 24
Kyiv (AP): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that a Russian missile attack on a Kyiv apartment building the previous day killed 24 people, including what local officials said were three teenagers.
Emergency workers finished digging through the building's rubble after more than a day, Zelenskyy said on X.
The cruise missile hit the nine-story corner block during what the Ukrainian air force said was Russia's biggest barrage of the country since its all-out invasion.
The assault mostly targeted the Ukrainian capital, where 48 people were wounded, including two children, Zelenskyy said.
Russia hammered Ukraine with large-scale aerial attacks in the days following a May 9-11 ceasefire that US President Donald Trump said he asked Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to observe. Fighting went on over those 72 hours, although reportedly on a lesser scale.
This week's attacks ran counter to recent suggestions from Trump and Putin that the war, now in its fifth year, is close to ending.
Zelenskyy said Thursday that Moscow had launched more than 1,560 drones against Ukrainian population centres since Wednesday. In all, some 180 sites across the country were damaged, including more than 50 residential buildings, he said.
Previously, the biggest Russian drone attack was from the evening of March 23 to the evening of March 24 when Moscow's forces fired nearly 1,000 drones and missiles at Ukraine.
Ukraine has also built up significant long-range capabilities, and Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that air defences downed 355 drones overnight in one of the largest Ukrainian drone attacks of the war.
Several airports suspended flights overnight because of the attacks.
Also, a Ukrainian drone attack on Ryazan, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Moscow, killed four people, including a child, Ryazan Governor Pavel Malkov said.
After the attack, massive plumes of black smoke spewed from a fire at a local oil refinery. Ukraine has targeted Russian oil facilities in an effort to deny vital export revenue for Moscow and rattle the Kremlin.
Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment about the Ryazan strike.
The Ukrainian capital observed an official day of mourning Friday in remembrance of those killed Thursday, and Zelenskyy visited the site.
The cruise missile that hit the apartment building was built in the second quarter of this year, Zelenskyy said, apparently after Ukrainian experts analyzed the wreckage.
“This means Russia is still importing the components, resources and equipment necessary for missile production in circumvention of global sanctions,” Zelenskyy said in another post on X late Thursday.
“Stopping Russia's sanctions evasion schemes must be a genuine priority for all our partners,” he said.
Russia and Ukraine have continued to occasionally swap prisoners of war, and 205 from each country returned home Friday.
Zelenskyy said it was the first phase of a planned 1,000-for-1,000 prisoner swap. Some of the Ukrainians released had been held in Russian captivity since 2022, he said, and had fought in some of the war's fiercest battles.
Russia's Defence Ministry confirmed the exchange and thanked the United Arab Emirates for helping broker it.
