'Merely Liking a Social Media Post Doesn't Amount to Sharing it': Allahabad High Court

New Delhi: The Allahabad high court has said that merely liking a post doesn’t amount to transmitting it and would not be an offence under Section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act that deals with punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form.

A bench of Justice Saurabh Srivastava observed 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, reported LiveLaw.

Justice Srivastava made the observations on April 17 while quashing a case against petitioner Imran Khan, after finding out that he had only liked a message that was published by another person.

There was no offensive post in Khan’s Facebook and WhatsApp account, reported Times of India.

"In the present case, it is alleged that there is material in the case diary showing that the applicant has liked the post of one Farhan Usman for unlawful assembly, but liking a post will not amount to publishing or transmitting the post, therefore, merely liking a post will not attract Section 67 IT Act," said the court.

Earlier, the police had booked Khan for “provocative messages on social media”, which resulted in the assembly of about 600-700 people belonging to the Muslim community for arranging procession without permission.

But the court reached the conclusion that Khan had only liked a message published by another person.

"Even otherwise, Section 67 of the IT Act is for obscene material and not for provocative material. The words ‘lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest' mean relating to sexual interest and desire, therefore, Section 67 IT Act does not prescribe any punishment for other provocative material," said the court.

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