The Kerala High Court recently granted interim relief to a minor girl and her family by directing social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram and Facebook to immediately take down videos that mocked and defamed her..Justice N Nagaresh passed the interim order while considering a petition filed by the girl's mother after distorted clips of the child's original video, in which she reviewed a Malayalam film, began circulating online..According to the petition, the minor girl had made a spontaneous and innocent review about a Malayalam movie Moonwalk, directed by her uncle at the time of its release on May 30. However, her video was later picked up by unknown persons, who altered it and circulated it in a vulgar and offensive manner.The mother stated in the petition that the girl's video had been heavily edited with obscene voiceovers, mocking music and vulgar content that completely distorted her original message."The child's facial expressions and voice were retained while the background was altered with mocking music, sarcastic voice filters, and vulgar captions. These edited videos were often captioned with sexually suggestive or deeply insulting phrases, with overlays that twisted the innocent narrative of the original video into an object of public ridicule and targeted humiliation," the petition stated..These clips were then widely shared on various social media platforms. Her mother had initially tried to get the offensive content removed by reporting it through platform-specific complaint systems. However, no effective action was taken. An attempt to filed a complaint with the police containing specific URLs and screenshots bore no fruit.Aggrieved, the mother moved the High Court seeking protection for her daughter from digital exploitation and cyber harassment..The petition cited Rule 3(1)(b)(iii) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which prohibits sharing content harmful to children and Rule 3(2)(a)(i), which mandates that platforms must act on takedown requests within 72 hours.The mother stated that the failure on part of the social media platforms to comply with these statutory obligations amounted to a violation of her daughter's constitutional and statutory rights.In the petition, the mother also pointed out that the young girl's emotional and mental health was also severely affected due to the viral spread of these clips, which resulted in severe anxiety, emotional breakdowns and even social withdrawal tendencies..After going through the plea, the Court issued an interim directive to take down the links to the content in question..The petitioner was represented by Advocates Navaneeth N Nath, Abhirami S, Abdul Latheef PM and Gautham Krishna EJ.
