‘Liking a tweet means republication’: Delhi court orders TV journalist Gargi Rawat to pay Rs 10,000 to Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for liking ‘defamatory’ post

“…there is no manner of doubt that the act of the defendant no.2 (Rawat) in “liking” the original defamatory tweet in question amounted to republication and, as a result, the defendant no.2 is liable for the tort of defamation,” the court held.

“Hence, in the overall facts and circumstances of the case, although the online republication and circulation by the defendant no.2 was of a grave false allegation, however, taking into account the mitigating factors as discussed above, I consider it reasonable to grant the plaintiff damages on the lower side which are quantified as ₹10,000 only against the plaintiff’s claim of ₹20 lacs,” said the district judge.

The court further directed Rawat to permanently delete or remove the impugned tweet in case it is still showing on the profile or timeline of Rawat on the X platform.

According to the judge, liking the tweet had made it reflect in Rawat’s own profile, which meant its further circulation.

“As per her own case, the defendant no.2 is a known personality in her field and on the media. Thus, by her action in “liking” the original tweet, the defendant no.2 ensured that the circulation of the original tweet was widened to a larger audience. The action of the defendant no.2 in “liking” the original tweet, leading to its republication was also not a case of a content-neutral reference to the original tweet,” the court said.

The court observed that by “liking” the tweet, Rawat was showing her appreciation for the tweet.

“Thus, in the present case, the “liking” of the tweet in question was not a case of a mere content-neutral reference to the tweet in question, but was the defendant no.2’s way of showing to the online audience at large her appreciation for the tweet,” it added.

The case pertains to Rawat’s act of liking an X post by Dushyant Arora who had supported Washington Post columnist Rana Ayyub’s criticism of a December 2019 article by Iyer-Mitra titled ‘In Rana Ayyub, the White West has found its next Arundhati Roy’.

Ayyub had called the article a “hitjob”.  Replying to Ayyub’s tweet, Dushyant Arora said, “The man has been accused of rape, he routinely engages in hate speech”, and this tweet was liked by Rawat. The matter between Mitra and Arora was settled later when the latter published an apology on his X profile.

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