Delhi HC issues contempt of court notice to Wikipedia

New Delhi: Wikipedia received a contempt of court summons on Thursday from the Delhi High Court, which also warned to ask the government to ban the website in India, according to Bar and Bench.

This was after accusations made by Asian News International that Wikipedia had disregarded court demands to reveal personal data about users who had posted allegedly defamatory comments about the news organisation on the website.

Volunteers edit Wikipedia, a collaborative online encyclopaedia that is available for free. Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organisation based in the United States, is the owner, Scroll.in reported.

Wikipedia's lawyer told the court that the platform is not located in India and that is why it took so long for it to appear in court, according to Live Law.

“It is not a question of defendant no. 1 [Wikipedia] not being an entity in India,” Bar and Bench quoted Justice Navin Chawla as saying. “We will close your business transactions here. We will ask the government to block Wikipedia... Earlier also you people have taken this argument. If you don’t like India, please don’t work in India.”

The next hearing on the subject is scheduled for October 25, and the judge ordered Wikipedia to have a representative present. Wikipedia is being sued by ANI for defamation. The news organisation informed the court in July that a Wikipedia page about it contained a defamatory description.

According to the ANI Wikipedia article, the news organisation has drawn criticism for acting as a "propaganda tool" for the administration in power in the Union. Additionally, ANI claimed that Wikipedia was preventing edits to its page.

“They have closed my [ANI’s] page for editing by anyone and can only be edited through their representatives,” the news agency’s lawyer Sidhant Kumar had told the court in July.

In addition to requesting the removal of the allegedly defamatory text, ANI is also seeking Rs 2 crore in damages from Wikipedia. Wikipedia cannot "behave as a private actor," said ANI, since it is a "public utility," according to Live Law.

The Wikimedia Foundation stated on July 12 in response to the lawsuit for defamation brought against it that the content of the site is decided by its global volunteer editor community.

“As a technology host, the Wikimedia Foundation generally does not add, edit or determine content published on Wikipedia,” it stated. “Wikipedia’s content is determined by its global community of volunteer editors [also known as Wikimedia Community] who compile and share information on notable subjects.”

In response to ANI's allegation that Wikipedia was preventing edits to its page, the Wikimedia Foundation stated that the news agency's page was set to "extended confirmed protection."

According to Wikipedia, only volunteer user accounts that fulfil the requirements of having 500 edits and being at least 30 days old are eligible for edit access in this category.

The foundation added: “Experienced users can continue to improve the Wikipedia article about ANI in accordance with Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines on reliability, verifiability, neutrality and conflict of interest editing.”