Delhi HC rules retweeting defamatory content amounts to defamation

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court ruled Monday that retweeting or reposting offensive content constitutes defamation, according to Live Law.

A single-judge panel led by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma issued the ruling while refusing to stay a criminal defamation action filed against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for sharing a 2018 YouTube video created by Dhruv Rathee.

Vikas Pandey launched the case in 2018, accusing Kejriwal of sharing the video which reportedly includes false and defamatory statements against him. Pandey claims to be a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and founded the social media page "I Support Narendra Modi".

Pandey claimed that the Aam Aadmi Party leader is followed by crores of people and that by retweeting the video, he shared it with a wider audience.

In 2019, Kejriwal was served a summons by the additional chief metropolitan magistrate in the matter. The politician had appealed the summons in the sessions court, which declined to overturn the decision.

Kejriwal then filed a High Court petition challenging the lower courts' orders. He also requested that the criminal defamation charges against him be dropped, Scroll.in reported.

The court ruled that exchanges on social networking site X, formerly known as Twitter, and sharing posts with others by retweeting them are grounds for defamation. It stated that retweeting must result in criminal and civil action.

“When a public figure, particularly one with a political standing, tweets or retweets a defamatory post, the stakes and repercussions escalate given the broader implications on society,” the High Court said. “The audience, therefore, becomes the citizenry at large, whose opinions and decisions may be influenced by the information they consume, including defamatory statements published on social media.”

According to Bar and Bench, the court ruled that anyone who retweets or reposts defamatory content should include a disclaimer in their post stating whether they agree, disagree, or have verified it.

If they do not include a disclaimer, they are republishing the original defamatory content, which has the potential to harm the moral or intellectual character or credit of the person who is the subject of the content.