Delhi High Court Justice Tejas Karia recuses from hearing PIL on misuse of Meta's copyright rules

Delhi High Court judge, Justice Tejas Karia today recused from hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition that flags the misuse of Meta's copyright enforcement mechanism with respect to content uploaded on Instagram.

The PIL was filed by a digital content creator, Nitin Joshi. He says that digital creators are allegedly being extorted into paying lakhs of rupees for the withdrawal of false copyright strikes and the restoration of social media accounts suspended because of such strikes.

The matter was listed before the Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia today.

"List before a bench of which he (Justice Karia) is not a member. Matter will go before another bench," the Chief Justice stated.

The case will be heard by another Bench on July 28.

The case raises concerns about anonymous criminals, bot-operated accounts, fraudulent entities and organised criminal syndicates who threaten digital creators with copyright strikes, to carry out organised cyber extortion, digital blackmail and cyber fraud.

The petitioner, Nitin Joshi, has contended that there is a cyber-extortion racket in play, which has been taking advantage of Meta's copyright enforcement mechanism.

The plea adds that by filing false copyright infringement complaints, such entities trigger the automatic disablement or permanent suspension of legitimate user accounts on social media.

Those who filed the false complaints then demand lakhs of rupees as ransom for the withdrawal of the copyright complaint.

Joshi's counsel today pointed out that digital creators spend substantial time and effort to build their following on social media. When faced with the prospect of losing their account, the creators often give in to the ransom payments demanded by extortionists, added the plea.

The PIL seeks various remedial directions, including the directions to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate such organised cyber-extortion rackets.

It also urges the Court to declare Rule 3(1)(c) and Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 as unconstitutional, insofar as they permit the disabling of a user’s account without prior notice.

In the alternative, the petitioner calls for the framing of binding Standard Operating Procedure to govern action that follows copyright complaints. This should include prior notice before any action is taken against the account, disclosure of the complainant identity, mandatory review of the copyright complaint by a human being before any permanent action, etc.

The Court has also been urged to direct Meta to restore Instagram posts or pages that were suspended based on copyright strikes without human review or prior notice.

Other prayers include a plea to direct Meta to conduct a forensic audit of its automated copyright-strike system, and to institute a fast-track escalation mechanism for complaints linked to extortion or fraud.

The Court has further been urged to restrain Meta from further suspending, removing or disabling the Instagram pages of content creators without prior notice and human review, while the petition remains pending.

The petition has been filed through Advocates Raghav Sethi, Gurmukh Singh Arora, and Tejbir Singh of T&R Law Offices.