The Delhi High Court has issued important guidelines regarding YouTuber Dhruv Rathi’s controversial video. The court ordered the government’s Grievance Appeals Committee (GAC) to rule within 15 days on the appeal seeking the removal of the video. The court also said that any disregard of its order will be taken seriously.
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This issue is related to Dhruv Rathi’s YouTube video “Can Hindus Eat Beef?” uploaded on March 21st this year? ‘Kerala Story 2’ is related to ‘Exposure’. Petitioner’s lawyer Amita Sachdeva contends that the video purportedly said that Lord Rama, Mother Sita and Lord Krishna consumed meat and alcohol due to which the religious sentiments of millions of people were hurt.
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During the hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma, appearing for the central government, said intermediary platforms like YouTube should have taken proper precautions. His argument was that objectionable and hateful content should have been removed immediately. He told the court that Dhruv Rathi’s video is harmful and contains content that creates division in society.
Either Google will delete the video, or the court will make a decision!
ASG also said that either Google itself must decide to remove the video, or the court must make an appropriate order in this regard. He said such content should not be given a platform that hurts the religious sentiments of the majority of the community.
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GAC will have to make a decision within 15 days – Court
A lawyer acting on behalf of Google told the court that the company had responded to the plaintiff and that an appeal had also been filed in this regard with the GAC. Following this, Justice Swarnakanta Sharma directed the GAC to decide on the appeal within 15 days.
At this time, the High Court has not made a final decision on whether to remove the video. All eyes now turn to the decision of the GAC, which will have to make its decision within the next 15 days as directed by the court.
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