Wikipedia has landed into major legal trouble in India that could impact the fate of free online encyclopedia in the country.
According to BBC, the largest newswire service in India filed a 20 million rupee ($237,874; £183,012) lawsuit against the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, for allegedly publishing defamatory content against it.
Asian News International (ANI) in the lawsuit filed in the Delhi High Court accused Wikipedia of being “a propaganda tool for the incumbent (federal) government and distributing material from fake news websites," demanding to take down the page.
Meanwhile, Wikipedia said that the content of the website is managed by the volunteers and the Foundation does not have control over it.
Moreover, the court ordered Wikipedia in August 2024 to disclose forces behind allegedly defamatory edits to the ANI page and warned that the website would be shut down if it did not complete the court orders.
Experts believe that the case is very important for the future of the website in India, and the outcome of the results will directly impact the access of people to unbiased content on the platform.
Technology law expert Mishi Choudhary said, “It will tell us whether India lives in the era of the internet, where information is truthful and free for everybody to access.”
Furthermore, tech journalists and digital rights experts have expressed a fear that the case would encourage other people and brands to control their pages on the website.
