Aaradhya Bachchan case: Court forbids circulation of ‘false’ YouTube videos

The Delhi High Court on Thursday restrained several YouTube channels from publishing misleading content on the health of Aaradhya Bachchan, daughter of actors Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, saying spreading misinformation about a child reflects “morbid perversity”.The court, while dealing with a lawsuit by the minor child and her father, directed Google to take down from its platform certain videos which claimed that Aaradhya Bachchan was “critically ill” and “no more”.

Justice C Hari Shankar said every child is entitled to be treated with honour and respect and dissemination of misleading information in respect of a child’s health was “completely intolerable in law”.The judge emphasised that Google was making money from the activities on YouTube and, therefore, besides ensuring compliance with the law, it also has a social responsibility to ensure such content is not shared on its platform.Although this is not the first time that such misinformation is being circulated for celebrities, when information relates to a child of tender age, it reflects morbid perversity on part of the persons circulating the video in complete apathy to the interest of the child,” said the court as it stopped the uploaders from further publishing similar content with respect to the minor girl’s health.“Every child is entitled to be treated with honour and respect, be it the child of a celebrity or a common person. Circulating misinformation as regards physical and mental health of a child is something that is completely intolerable in law,” it said.The court, in the interim order, asked Google to disclose the details of the uploaders, including email and IP addresses, and clarified that similar videos, whenever brought to Google’s notice by the plaintiff, shall also be taken down.“You have responsibility to see proper dissemination. You are providing platform on which misinformation is being provided to public. How can such a thing be tolerated?” the court told counsel for Google. 

YouTube does not run for charity. It is a profit making platform. If you are making money. You have a social responsibility. You can’t allow your platform to run such kind of videos,” it said.Senior advocate Dayan Krishnan argued videos were available on YouTube making “fake claims” in relation to the 11-year-old child in violation of the intermediary rules as well as the right to privacy and intellectual property rights. The plaintiffs, also represented by lawyers Pravin Anand and Ameet Naik, contended Google cannot be a “tacit onlooker” when rules cast a duty on intermediaries to undertake due diligence and make reasonable efforts to prevent invasion of privacy and content harmful to child.