New Delhi, May 29 The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed YouTuber Mohak Mangal to remove objectionable portions from his video where he had accused a news wire agency of "extortion".
A single-judge bench of Justice Amit Bansal was dealing with a defamation suit filed by wire agency Asian News International (ANI) against Mangal’s YouTube video titled "Dear ANI".
In his video, the popular YouTube content creator, having around 4.21 million subscribers, alleged that the news wire agency was committing “extortion” and “blackmail” in the guise of seeking to enforce its copyright over its content.
In its defamation suit filed before the Delhi High Court, the wire agency stated that the video deliberately spread falsehoods with the intent to target and malign its public image.
"I offered a license. They could have rejected my offer, but to put pressure on me, defamatory material is put by them. This is in retaliation to my offer," said senior advocate Amit Sibal, appearing on the plaintiff’s behalf.
"He (Mohak Mangal) starts a media campaign against me that has spiralled into a concerted campaign which is nothing short of vilifying and, per se, defamatory. They are calling me (ANI) thugs, extortionists, gunda, and other expletives," he added.
During the course of the hearing, Alt-news co-founder Mohammed Zubair, who was arrayed as a co-defendant in the defamation suit for amplifying Mangal’s post on social media platform X, also agreed to take down his online posts.
Further, the Delhi High Court ordered stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, another co-defendant, to delete his first tweet of the several posted on X. Kamra’s counsel contended that his social media posts were covered under the right to free speech and he was commenting on a matter of larger public interest. However, the Justice Bansal-led Bench opined that such language was not palatable to the court and calling someone "thugs" and "mafia" was serious.
The matter is listed for further hearing in July.
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