Observing that YouTubers do not possess a licence to tarnish the reputation of others by levelling wild and baseless allegations, the Madras High Court on Tuesday directed YouTube LLC to deposit in court, the entire revenue earned by Savukku Media Private Limited through a video in which ‘Savukku’ Shankar alias A. Shankar had accused Lyca Productions Private Limited of using money from smuggling of drugs.
Justice N. Sathish Kumar ordered that the revenue should be deposited forthwith to the credit of a civil suit filed by the cinema production house demanding damages of ₹1 crore from Savukku Media. “Privacy is a part of a person’s fundamental right which has been compromised in the present case by levelling accusations against the plaintiff company without proper verification of facts,” the judge said during the hearing.
He went on to state: “Considering the nature of the statements which have been circulated without any verification and the derogatory remarks which give undue advantage to YouTubers to collect revenue, this court is prima facie satisfied that unless there is some mechanism to control these type of allegations in the social media, it will have a serious impact, and in fact, intrude into the privacy of others.”
