Centre orders removal of YouTube videos, Instagram posts on Adani citing court order

New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has directed 12 media outlets and independent journalists to take down 138 YouTube videos and 83 Instagram posts related to industrialist Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises, citing a Delhi court order passed earlier this month, The News Minute reported.

Those who received notices include news portals Newslaundry, The Wire and HW News, as well as journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ajit Anjum and Ravish Kumar, satirist Akash Banerjee and content creator Dhruv Rathee. The content flagged for removal ranged from investigative reports to satirical commentary and incidental references to the Adani Group.

Copies of the ministry’s notice were also sent to Meta and Google, which own Instagram and YouTube.

The order refers to a September 6 ruling by Special Civil Judge Anuj Kumar Singh of the Rohini Courts in connection with a defamation suit filed by Adani Enterprises. The company alleged that journalists, activists and organizations had harmed its reputation and caused significant financial losses to its stakeholders.

The court granted an ex parte injunction, issued without hearing the other side, restraining five journalists and three websites from publishing allegedly defamatory content. The journalists named in the order were Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das and Ayush Joshi, while the websites included paranjoy.in, adaniwatch.org and adanifiles.com.au.

Judge Singh directed that allegedly defamatory material be removed from articles and social media posts, or, if removal was not possible, taken down entirely within five days. At the same time, the court clarified that the injunction did not amount to a blanket restriction on “fair, verified and substantiated” reporting.

According to The Telegraph, barring Guha Thakurta, none of the individuals or outlets that received notices from the ministry on Tuesday were party to the Delhi court proceedings.