Mumbai-based coding and educational platform WhiteHat Jr has withdrawn the Rs 20-crore defamation suit it had filed against software engineer Pradeep Poonia, the latter said. “It’s not just our right but our duty as well to fight for our freedom of speech. Whether it is the education sector or any other sector, whether you are a student, consumer, or parent, employee or just a concerned citizen, please remember the strength of your voice depends on your own perseverance,” Poonia said in an update on his Facebook account. WhiteHat Jr — which has since been purchased by Byju’s — had late last year filed a defamation case against Poonia, alleging that the software engineer, through his posts on various social media channels, had posted “defamatory content” and was “running an unsubstantiated narrative against the educational platform”. On the other hand, Poonia had claimed that WhiteHat Jr was making false claims which had not been verified and that the company’s trainers did not have the required knowledge to take classes. These allegations led to WhiteHat Jr founder and chief executive officer Karan Bajaj filing the defamation case. Though the company came under attack for using takedown policies of social media platforms to stifle online dissenters of its processes, including some marketing campaigns, it later admitted that some of the campaigns had been “poorly designed”. In addition to the company, even Bajaj had later admitted to “making mistakes”, but then the company said it had corrected its course focusing on kids’ joy of coding and creation. “We’ve made mistakes while growing up. Our marketing campaigns were poorly designed, which we changed. Legitimate, honest fact-based criticism is truly welcome.,” Bajaj had then said in a post on LinkedIn.
