US court rules in favor of Facebook, says blocking content is legal

Few days back, a Sikh group had filed a lawsuit against Facebook, challenging the blocking of its social media page. However, a US court has ruled in favor of Facebook, saying that it can block content without any explanation.

The case was lodged by Sikh for Justice, a group advocating Sikh separatism, after Facebook blocked their page. US District Judge Lucy Koh said that the religious discrimination claims made by the Sikh group are unacceptable under the Communications Decency Act. The said act protects providers of "interactive computer services" by barring courts from treating service providers like Facebook as the publishers or speakers of speech created by others.

"We will appeal and challenge the decision of Judge Koh which is just an extension of Facebook action of blocking SFJ's page at the behest of the Indian government," said attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in his capacity as the legal adviser to SFJ.

"Facebook is an American Corporation and owes allegiance to US Constitution which promotes and protects free speech content and not accede to threats of foreign governments but Judge Koh's ruling failed to cover any of the allegations of SFJ," he continued.

"If Facebook is a public company making billions of dollars in public money and they don't want to give any explanation for why they blocked the content of a human rights group, then what is the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship?" he asked.

Pannun also said that Judge Koh should have at least listened to SFJ and asked Facebook to explain the reason for taking down the page. "Facebook owes an explanation to its users after or before blocking and removing the content which is guaranteed under freedom of speech," he added.

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