The Allahabad High Court has ruled that merely liking a provocative post on social media does not constitute a criminal offence, whereas sharing or forwarding such content can fall under the ambit of the law. The court emphasised that liking a post and sharing it are two fundamentally different actions. A message or post can only be deemed as “published” when it is shared or forwarded.
Justice Saurabh Srivastava made these observations while quashing criminal proceedings initiated against Agra resident Imran Khan. The case stemmed from the Mantola police station area, where Imran was accused of liking a provocative Facebook post originally published under the name Chaudhary Farhan Usman. The post allegedly called for protests and urged people to gather at the Agra Collectorate to submit a memorandum to the President.
Based on this, the local police registered a case under the IT Act and filed a chargesheet against Imran in the trial court, which subsequently summoned him as an accused. Challenging this, Imran approached the High Court. His counsel argued that the youth had not posted or shared any objectionable content on his Facebook account that would qualify as an offence under the Information Technology Act.
The High Court agreed with the defence, stating that Section 67 of the IT Act - which deals with the publication or transmission of obscene material-cannot be applied merely because someone liked a provocative post. The provision is applicable only to sexually explicit content that reveals obscenity.
The police contended that Imran had deleted the said post from his Facebook account, but similar content was found on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. However, the High Court examined the case diary and concluded that Imran had only liked Usman’s Facebook post and did not share or forward it. Therefore, it held that no offence was made out under the IT Act and set aside the criminal proceedings pending before the trial court.
This judgment reaffirms that a mere digital interaction such as liking a post cannot be equated with publishing or promoting its content, thus offering relief to social media users from over-criminalisation of online behaviour.