13 news publishers ordered to remove posts on Adani group

Journalists and media publishers received a list of 138 URLs of YouTube videos and 83 Instagram links which are to be taken down. A copy of the ministry’s order was sent to Google and Meta, which own YouTube and Instagram, respectively, according to the order seen by HT. HT did not receive a response from both companies. The  ministry’s order includes names of journalists, media houses, and creators, including Newslaundry, Ravish Kumar, Dhruv Rathee, The Wire, Abhisar Sharma, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, HW News, and Aakash Banerjee’s The Deshbhakt.

The ministry sought compliance with the Delhi court’s September 6 ex parte order in a defamation case filed by Adani Enterprise Ltd against journalists Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, Ravi Nair, Abir Dasgupta, Ayaskant Das, Ayush Joshi and five others, including an unidentified “Ashok Kumar/John Doe,” representing unknown individuals who posted content against the company and whose identities may be specified later by the plaintiff. Out of the list, Thakurta, Nair, Dasgupta, Das and Joshi have filed applications against the notice.

The order sought the removal of defamatory and unverified content within five days from their respective social media accounts/posts, and asked intermediaries to take it down within 36 hours of being notified.