Delhi HC Restrains YouTube Channels From Sharing Fake News On Aaradhya Bachchan’s Health

Aaradhya Bachchan has filed for an injunction to prevent the media from publishing damaging articles about her.

The Bachchans say they saw many videos on YouTube that said Aaradhya was hospitalised. ( Image Source :Manav Manglani )

New Delhi: On Thursday, the Delhi High Court issued an order preventing several YouTube channels from further disseminating or showing videos that promote false rumours about the daughter of Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan’s daughter Aaradhya Bachchan. Aaradhya has filed for an injunction to prevent the media from publishing damaging articles about her health and personal life. She is just eleven years old. The Bachchans say they saw many videos on YouTube that said Aaradhya was hospitalised. One of the videos even revealed that she passed away.

Justice C. Hari Shankar enjoined the YouTube channels and their affiliates in his notice on the plea order from further disseminating or continuing to show the videos.

Additionally, the court ordered the Centre to block access to all of the material, as well as any additional films or clips with similar content.

The Bachchans have requested that Google LLC reveal the identities of the defendants to them and take immediate action to deactivate the URLs listed in the complaint, and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Grievance Cell) has been added as an observer to the case as well.

The court said, "Defendants 1-9 are also restrained from creating publishing, uploading or disseminating of any videos which are identical or similar in content to the videos forming subject matter of the aforesaid URLs. It is clarified that this would encompass all videos that deal with the physical condition of the plaintiff. In other words, Defendants are completely restrained from disseminating on any platform available across the internet relating to the mental or physical health of the plaintiff." the court said.

The judge said, "On the plaintiff bringing to their notice any other videos clip uploaded on its platform dealing with physical health and well-being of the plaintiff, Google will take immediate steps to take those down." 

"Every child is entitled to be treated with honour and respect whether he/she is child of celebrity or a commoner. Circulating information with respect to mental and physical health of child is completely impermissible in law," the judge added.

Senior Advocate Dayan Krishnan, speaking for Aaradhya, cited the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, which mandate intermediary responsibility for identifying and removing potentially hazardous information for minors. He said, "In the age of social media, the reputation of a public person has become a child's play and here a child has to suffer." 

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan tied the knot in 2007. They had their first child, a girl named Aaradhya, in 2011.

(With inputs from IANS)