LUCKNOW, Oct 11: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court today ordered removal of alleged objectionable videos against Vice Chancellor of Jagatguru Swami Rambhadracharya Divyang Vishwavidyalaya, Chitrakoot, Swami Rambhadracharya from a YouTube channel and other internet media platforms within 48 hours.
The court directed Meta Platforms Incorporation and Google LLC to obtain URL links from the petitioners and remove the allegedly objectionable content against Swami Rambhadracharya within 48 hours. The court has scheduled the next hearing for November 11.
A division bench of Justice Shekhar B Saraf and Justice Prashant Kumar issued this order on a petition filed by Sharad Chandra Srivastava and others.
The petition urges the central and state governments to formulate regulations to regulate various internet media platforms and ensure their strict enforcement.
It also stated that Gorakhpur-based YouTube editor Shashank Shekhar, who runs channels on Facebook and Instagram, has been running derogatory videos against Swami Rambhadracharya on his YouTube channel and other internet media platforms since August 29th.
The petitioner said that despite being asked, neither did they remove the video, nor did the relevant internet media platforms take any action on their own.
This video is being circulated under the title ‘Revelation on Rambhadracharya – What happened 16 years ago’. It was stated that Swamiji has been visually impaired since childhood, yet a video containing derogatory content regarding his disability is being circulated.
A request was made to immediately ban this video. After the hearing, the court said that prima facie, a case for action by the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities against this content has been made out.
On September 17, the court took cognisance of the petition and issued notices to Facebook, Instagram, Google and YouTube.
The court ordered that the grievance redressal officers of the media platforms be provided with representations regarding the videos being shown against Swamiji within a week, upon which immediate action would be taken to remove the objectionable video.
The court also directed the State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities to seek clarification from Shashank Shekhar, the editor of the Facebook and Instagram channels, and take appropriate action against him.
(UNI)
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