Aaradhya Bachchan case: Delhi HC comes down heavily on YouTube, orders delisting of videos running fake news

The Delhi High Court, hearing megastar Amitabh Bachchan's granddaughter Aaradhya Bachchan's plea against a YouTube channel, today in its order said that misinformation and fake news has become a regular feature of being a celebrity. The court further said that this occurence is reflective of a 'morbid perversity', especially when misinformation and fake news are targeted towards minors.

The order, which was accessed by the online portal Bar & Bench, said: “Though this is not the first time that such misleading information is being celebrated wrt to celebrities, where the information relates to a child it reflects morbid perversity with complete apathy to the child in question.”

Yesterday, Aaradhya had filed a plea against a YouTube channel that purportedly had reported fake news about her health and life. The plea mentioned that these videos claimed she is in poor health, with one of these videos even claiming she had passed away.

Some of these videos also made the sensational claim that the Bachchans did not take any steps to ensure prompt medical attention for the child. Aaradhya Bachchan sought an injunction against such reporting about her since she is below the age of 18 years. Google and Grievance Cell of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have also been made parties to the case.

The Delhi High Court stated that every child deserves to be treated with honour and respect regardless of whether he/she is the child of a celebrity or a commoner. It also mentioned in its order that circulating information about the physical and mental health of a child is impermissible by law.

The court directed Google to reveal the identity of those running the channel and take steps to deactivate the URLs whereas the Central government was also asked to block access to all videos and/or clips pertaining to fake news about Aaradhya Bachchan's health. YouTube's counsel, in response, said that they will provide information about the people who were running the channel in question.

The counsel added that YouTube has already provided the URLs of the videos and the videos concerned will also be delisted. During the course of this hearing, Justice Shankar also condemned YouTube for allowing such fake and misleading content on its platform and questioned them about their policy regarding the same.

“You are providing a facility to misinform the public," Justice Shankar observed. The judge then asked: “How can this be tolerated?” The court, coming down heavily on YouTube, asked the platform how can its policies allow content that talks about a child being dead when she is still alive.

Aaradhya Bacchan’s lawyer Dayan Krishnan, citing Rule 3 (1) b of the Information Technology rules, which provides for due diligence on intermediaries’ part pertaining to content harmful to children, said: “In the age of social media, the reputation of a public person has become a child’s play and here a child has to suffer.”

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