Wikipedia ready to give details of who edited page

Wikipedia will disclose user details who edited the ANI page in a defamation case, amid ongoing legal disputes over digital content responsibility.

Wikipedia has informed the Delhi High Court that it will provide details of users who edited the page about Asian News International (ANI), the latest in a defamation case filed by the news agency that has since turned into a legal wrangle that has brought up concerns over how user-created digital content should be viewed.

Wikipedia told the Delhi high court that the platform would take necessary steps to serve summons to users based on available electronic information. (HT Photo)

Senior advocate Akhil Sibal, representing Wikipedia, told the bench of chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedela that the platform would take necessary steps to serve summons to users based on available electronic information.

“Based on the information available to us, we can file an affidavit effecting service [of notice],” Sibal told the court, and added that the details of the users will be placed to the court in a sealed cover and a redacted copy of it shared with ANI.

ANI’s counsel, advocate Siddhant Kumar, insisted that Wikipedia bear full responsibility for serving notices to these users. The bench scheduled the matter for Tuesday to consider a potential consent order, which would mean the particular matter --- on disclosing the information and serving a notice in the context of the defamation suite would be deemed settled.

The legal dispute emerged after ANI sued Wikipedia over allegedly defamatory descriptions of the news agency on its crowdsourced encyclopaedia service, which noted that the news agency had been criticised for functioning as a propaganda tool.

On August 20, the court ordered Wikipedia to disclose information about page editors within two weeks. ANI subsequently filed a contempt plea alleging non-compliance.

Wikipedia then challenged this order with the larger bench that is led by the chief justice. There are, therefore, two hearings – one is the defamation suit filed by the news agency while the other is Wikipedia’s appeal against being ordered to release the names of their editors.

It is in the latter where the issue of serving a notice or disclosing the identity of the Wikipedia user will now be determined.