When you’re a superstar and or a star kid, everything you do makes headlines. But sometimes, media outlets publish news and articles about you that don’t make sense and have no authenticity attached to them. Such fake and baseless pieces of news not just hurt the reputation of the family but all hamper the mental health of the person being spoken about.
Aaradhya Bachchan, born to Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan and granddaughter of Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan, also recently became a victim of such condemnable practices by media houses.
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Hence, the Bachchans knocked on the door of the Delhi High Court to complain against a YouTube tabloid spreading misinformation about the 11-year-old’s health. According to a report by Firstpost, Aaradhya filed a suit through her father Abhishek Bachchan. In the petition, she has asked 10 entities including Google-owned YouTube, to “de-list and deactivate all videos” about her.
In the petition, those representing her also alleged that the YouTube channel and other media houses intend to “unlawfully profit from the reputation of the Bachchan family” by spreading misinformation that she is critically ill even though she is perfectly fine.
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As per a report by Live Law, one of the videos that were circulating online also claimed that Aaradhya was no more along with morphed pictures of her.
Now, while hearing the case, the Delhi High Court observed that it has ‘zero tolerance’ in matters where misleading content is published on such platforms relating to the physical well-being of a child.
Image SourceJustice C Hari Shankar said, “Every child is entitled to be treated with honour and respect, be it a child of a celebrity or of a commoner,” instructing YouTube channels to immediately take down all the content spreading fake news about Aaradhya Bachchan’s health, reported Hindustan Times.
The court also summoned Google LLC and several entities operating channels on YouTube. Moreover, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology was also instructed to block access to content uploaded by nine defendants naming ‘Bollywood Time’, ‘Bollywood Chingari’, ‘Bolly Station HD’, ‘Bollywood Station’, ‘Bollywood Shine’, ‘Bolly Pakora’, ‘Bolly Samosa’, ‘Bolly ocean’ and ‘Hollywood Stars’ along with any entity that uploads fake news about the child.
It was also added by the court that if the plaintiff (Abhishek Bachchan) brings to Google’s notice any other video uploaded on the YouTube platform dealing with the physical health of Aaradhya, it must be immediately removed. The matter will now be heard again on July 13.
Good that the Bachchans decided to take matters into their own hands and establish through this suit that no one has the right to spread such fake news about a minor.