Post on Social Media – merely “liking” another person’s post will not amount “to publishing or transmitting the post” and is not a crime covered by Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2008.
Post on Social Media – merely “Liking” another person’s post will not amount “to publishing or transmitting the post” and is not a crime covered by Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2008.
The petitioner was charged for the offences under Section 67 of the IT Act, IPA and the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
From the record, it was found only that the petitioner had “liked” a message published by another person. There was no material that the petitioner had posted any offensive message on the Facebook and Whatsapp account.
HELD that a post or message can be said to be published when it is posted and a post or message can be said to be transmitted when it is shared or retweeted. Merely liking a message published by another person will not attract penalty under Section 67 of the IT Act or any other criminal offence. Even otherwise, Section 67 is in respect of obscene material and not for provocative material. The FIR was, therefore, quashed.
Application u/s 482 No.31091 of 2023 – Mohd. Imran Kazi Vs. State of U.P. and another (Allahabad High Court Judgment dated 18.10.2023).
