Students' Federation Of India Moves Delhi High Court Against Disabling Of Instagram Account

Students' Federation of India (SFI) has moved the Delhi High Court challenging the permanent disabling of its official Instagram account, alleging that the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) has failed to decide its appeal within the period contemplated under the Information Technology Rules, 2021.

The matter will be heard tomorrow by Justice Amit Mahajan.

The petition, filed by SFI and its Delhi State Committee Secretary Sooraj Elamon, has been moved through Advocate Naman Kumar.

SFI has sought directions to the GAC to expeditiously decide its appeal filed on August 12 against the disabling of its Instagram account @SfiDelhi.

According to the petition, the account was permanently disabled by Instagram on July 05 and the notification stated that the account “may be associated with another account that has gone against our rules” and referred to Instagram's “Community Standards on Account Integrity”.

SFI claims that Instagram did not disclose the identity of the allegedly associated account, the conduct said to constitute a violation, the particular policy allegedly breached, or the material on the basis of which the account was disabled.

The petition states that the account had approximately 13,000 followers and was being used as an established digital platform for disseminating information about SFI Delhi's activities, campaigns and student-related concerns.

“The disabling of the account consequently deprived the Petitioners of an important and established medium through which they communicated their activities, student-centric campaigns, issues and concerns, and engaged with students and the wider public,” the plea states.

After Instagram rejected the petitioners' internal appeal on July 07 stating that the account “still doesn't follow our community standards on account integrity”, SFI approached Meta's Grievance Officer on July 09.

The petition claims that Meta merely acknowledged receipt of the complaint and did not provide any substantive response concerning the disabling of the account.

SFI thereafter approached the GAC on August 12 by filing an appeal. It has been alleged that the GAC website continued to show the appeal as “under process” as of September 15, with no order or decision having been communicated to the petitioners.

The petitioners contend that the GAC's failure to resolve their appeal has resulted in deprivation of their fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.

They also allege that they were not afforded an opportunity of being heard regarding the alleged violation of Instagram's community standards before the account was permanently disabled.

Title: Students' Federation of India & Anr v. Union of India & Anr