Judge Bashing Has Become A Favorite Pastime For Some: AP High Court Directs Take Down Of Abusive Social Media Content

Key Takeaways

• Judges becoming soft targets of organized campaigns in a politically polarized environment
• Judge bashing is a favorite pastime for some people

Background

• The High Court had last year directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate the derogatory social media posts against judges.
• In the order passed on October 29, the bench expressed dissatisfaction at the progress of the CBI investigation and sought an affidavit by the CBI Director as to what transpired after December 2020, and the efforts taken by it.

Observation

• Observing that 'judge bashing has become a favorite pastime for some people, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to take down abusive content against judges.
• The Court directed the Registrar General to forward the URLs of the derogatory posts to the social media intermediaries, who were directed to pull them down as expeditiously as possible, but not later than a period of 36 hours.
• The Court also directed that YouTube should block the channel named "Punch Prabhakar", which was posting abusive videos against judges.
• The Court also expressed its dissatisfaction with the pace of the probe conducted by the CBI.

Questions

• What is your opinion on this judgement?
• Do you agree with it?

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