Ggm court summons Alibaba, Jack Ma
nNEW DELHI: A district court in Gurugram has summoned Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma in a case where a former employee in India alleged he was fired after flagging what he saw as fake news on apps and platforms owned by the Chinese e-commerce giant.
Pushpendra Singh Parmar, a resident of Ahmedabad and a former employee of Alibaba’s UC Web, filed a civil suit for wrongful termination against UC Web Mobile Private Limited on July 20. In the court filings, Parmar, 39, alleged the firm censored content seen as unfavourable to China and he was fired for flagging “fake news” that could cause “social and political turmoil”.
Civil judge Sonia Sheokand issued an order asking Alibaba, Ma, and about a dozen executives to appear before the court in person or through a lawyer at 10am on July 29 and also sought written responses from the company and its executives within 30 days. HT has a copy of the July 20 order.
The case will be heard in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Anil Kaushik on July 29. Atul Ahlawat, Parmar’s lawyer, said his client repeatedly wrote to his seniors about ”fake news” about false general elections, fake communal riots and non-existent India-pakistan clashes. “There are many fake news published by Alibaba which attracted 13 crore [130 million] followers. These fake news generated lot of traffic on their application and their site had 1,550 sensitive content words which was in favour of China and anti-india news,” he said. The suit seeks damages of ~ 2 crore.
The case comes weeks after India banned UC News, UC Browser and 57 other mostly Chinese apps over security concerns, amid tensions between the two countries over clashes in eastern Ladakh, where 20 Indian soldiers and a unknown number of Chinese troops were killed in June.
UC India said in a statement it was “unwavering in its commitment to the India market and the welfare of its local employees, and its policies are in compliance with local laws. We are unable to comment on ongoing litigation”. Alibaba representatives did not respond to requests for comment from the Chinese company or on behalf of Jack Ma.
The court filings, which ran into more than 200 pages, said Parmar worked as associate director of UC Web office in Sector 28 in Gurugram from 2016 until October 2017. Ahlawat said his client decided to bring suit after he heard the company was shuttering their India operations and closing the Gurugram office.
“We have filed 55 pages suit and nearly 150 pages of annexure as evidence which are the fake news link and screenshots and details of some posts showcased on the UC News application. One post of 2018 read “Just now: War broke out between India and Pakistan” and contained a description of firing across the disputed border between the countries,” said Ahlawat. The two countries did not fight any war in 2018.
The Chinese Embassy in New Delhi and China’s foreign ministry in Beijing, as well as the IT ministry , did not respond to requests from Reuters for comment.