Delhi High Court To Hear Wokeflix' Plea Against Suspension Of Its Twitter Account

Delhi High Court will resume hearing the case against Twitter’s permanent suspension of Wokeflix account and Meta’s temporary ban on the social media group’s Instagram page today.

What is the controversy about

Wokeflix’s social media accounts churn out content in the nature of political satire and memes. Controversy erupted when the social media group posted a satirical cartoon on their Twitter page taking influence from the Gujrat BJP cartoon and mocking Twitter for having the cartoon removed in February this year. The contentious BJP post depicted the death sentence being given to the accused and them being hanged after the verdict was announced in the 2008 bomb blasts case. There was an outrage over the cartoon on social media as all the people hanged were wearing religious attire. This led to Twitter suspending Wokeflix's Twitter account permanently while Meta had decided to go for a temporary ban on the satire group's Instagram handle.

Hateful content or free speech: Delhi High Court to decide

The petitioner has contended that Twitter and Meta did not give any opportunity to the social media group before permanently suspending its account. The cartoon that was reported can not be concluded as hate speech against any community as it was a pun on Twitter. 

The microblogging website has reiterated its zero-tolerance toward the content it deems hateful and harmful.

The aspect of public function

Other than the dimension of freedom of speech, the case throws interesting arguments on whether the action of content moderation and content removal falls under the domain of the public function. 

While Twitter has steered clear and said that it is a private company and performs its functions as an intermediary as per the law of the land, the petitioner has alleged that the social media company's actions possess the characteristics of a public function. 

While it remains to be seen what the court decides, the case has reignited the freedom of speech debate on social media platforms. When the case comes for a hearing later in the day, Meta is expected to file its reply.

Stay tuned for more updates