Gurugram Court Summons Alibaba And Founder Jack Ma On Ex-Employee Complaint Of Spreading Fake News

UC Web browser, a subsidiary of China's Alibaba group stopped its services and suspended its Indian operations and laid off the Indian team last week.

Photo: AFP

A Gurugram district court has summoned Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma on a complaint filed by a company's former employee who alleged that he was fired wrongfully after he objected to censorship and fake news on the company's apps. According to the reports, Pushpandra Singh Parmar, a former employee of Alibaba's UC Web in his complaint registered at the Indian court alleged that the tech giant firm used to censor the content seen as unfavourable to China and its UC Browser and UC News posted false news to create "social and political turmoil". An IANS report mentioned that the complainant Parmar in his court filings included clippings of some posts showcased on the UC News app that he alleged were false. As per the report, a 2017 Hindi post read the headline as: 2,000-rupee notes to be banned from midnight today. Another Post read as saying, "Just now: War broke out between India and Pakistan" with a description of firing across the border between the countries." Acting upon the complaint, the court has reportedly issued a summon to Alibaba, Jack Ma and about a dozen individuals asking them to appear before the court for hearing on July 29. Besides the summon, the court asked for written responses from the company and its executives within 30 days. On this, UC India reportedly said, "It had been unwavering in its commitment to the India market and the welfare of its local employees, and its policies are in compliance with local laws. We are unable to comment on ongoing litigation". The development has come days after the Indian government ordered to ban 59 Chinese apps including TikTok, WeChat and UC. Browser The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) cited security concerns to ban these apps. Complying to the Indian Government’s ban, UC Web browser, a subsidiary of China's Alibaba group stopped its services and suspended its Indian operations and laid off the Indian team last week. Launched in 2004, UC Web is around a decade old and had about 130 million active users in India alone. The company laid off almost 90 per cent of its Indian workforce, via video conferencing.