The Delhi High Court, on Thursday, May 29, instructed YouTuber Mohak Mangal to take down portions of his recently uploaded video against news agency ANI, where he used terms like “hafta wasooli” and “gunda raaj.”
The High Court is hearing a defamation case filed by Asian News International (ANI) against the YouTuber over his video that allegedly accuses the news agency of demanding money from digital content creators. Standup comedian Kunal Kamra and fact checker Mohammed Zubair have also been named in the case for sharing Mangal’s video on their X (formerly Twitter) handles.
“Do it today,” the High Court said.
Appearing for Mohak, senior advocates Chander Lall and Nakul Gandhi argued that the news agency threatened to block the YouTuber’s channel unless he complied with their monetary demands.
But ANI stated that Mohak infringed its content and, rather than rejecting the license offer respectfully, responded by publishing defamatory material against it.
Also ReadYouTuber accuses ANI of extortion over copyright strikes
ANI argued that Mohak started a “media campaign” and used derogatory terms such as ‘hafta wasooli’ (extortion), ‘gunda’, ‘kidnapper’, as well as asked people to unblock and unsubscribe the news agency.
On May 25, YouTuber Mohak Mangal released a video accusing ANI of ‘extortion’ by striking down his videos stating copyright issues. When the YouTuber reached out to the news agency, its official demanded Rs 48 lakhs for removing the penalties.
In his video, Mohak maintains that the clips he used from ANI were well under the YouTube copyright fair use policy.
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