HC Threatens Facebook: Cooperate or Shutdown!

If Facebook (now Meta) fails to comply with a police inquiry into a bogus profile, the High Court of Karnataka may shut down its Indian business. Shailesh Kumar, a Mangaluru native, is imprisoned in Saudi Arabia for allegedly defaming the Saudi king and Islam on Facebook. Kavitha, Shailesh’s wife, complained to the police that someone hacked his page and wrote a nasty comment.

Kavitha approached the high court since the police couldn’t finish investigating the phony profile. Justice Krishna S Dixit heard the case on Wednesday, following a June 12 order directing the Mangaluru Commissioner of Police to explain the lengthy delay in investigating the case, considering that an Indian citizen is imprisoned abroad.

Kuldeep Kumar Jain, Mangaluru’s police commissioner, and the investigating officer attended court. Kavitha’s complaint alleged that Shailesh had worked in Saudi Arabia for 25 years and supported the Indian government’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizenship (NRC) on Facebook. After a threatening call over his post, he canceled his account.

Later, a false Shailesh account wrote a disparaging comment about the Saudi king and Islam. Saudi Arabia detained, tried, and imprisoned Shailesh for 15 years. Kavitha reported the bogus profile to the police when Shailesh informed her.

Facebook’s non-cooperation delayed the inquiry, the police commissioner told the court. Facebook’s attorney denied knowing the incident’s exact location. The court threatened to shut down Facebook if it ignored the probe. The judge delayed the case until June 22 and ordered Facebook to produce a detailed incident report. On May 29, 2023, Meta, Facebook’s parent firm, joined the petition.