Gurgaon court summons Jack Ma and Alibaba over complaint filed by ex-staff

Exposure to US govt securities hiked in May Fired employee claims censorship by UC Web

India's holdings of American government securities increased by nearly $13 billion to $169.9 billion at the end of May. The exposure has seen significant fluctuations this year and had touched a record high of $177.5 billion in February but fell to $156.5 billion in March. After marginally rising to $157.4 billion in April, the holdings jumped to $169.9 billion in May, according to the US Treasury Department.

An Indian court has summoned Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma in a case in which a former employee in India says he was wrongfully fired after objecting to what he saw as censorship and fake news on company apps, documents seen by Reuters showed.

The case comes weeks after India cited security concerns in banning Alibaba’s UC News, UC Browser and 57 other Chinese apps after the border clashes.

Following the ban India sought written answers from all affected companies, including whether they censored content or acted for any foreign government.

In court filings dated July 20, the former employee of Alibaba’s UC Web, Pushpandra Singh Parmar, alleges the company used to censor content seen as unfavourable to China and its apps UC Browser and UC News showcased false news “to cause social and political turmoil”.

Civil judge Sonia Sheokand of a district court in Gurgaon, NCR, has issued summons to Ali-baba, Jack Ma and about a dozen individuals or company units, asking them to appear in court or through a lawyer on July 29, court documents showed.

The judge has also sought written responses from the company and its executives within 30 days.

UC India said in a statement it had been “unwavering

Jack Ma

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.

Parmar, who worked as an associate director at the UC Web office in Gurugram until October 2017 and seeking $268,000 in damages, referred Reuters queries to his lawyer, Atul Ahlawat, who declined to comment.

Before the apps were banned, the UC Browser had been downloaded at least 689 million times in India, while UC News had 79.8 million downloads, most during 2017 and 2018, data from analytics firm Sensor Tower showed.

In more than 200 pages of court filings, Parmar included clippings of some posts showcased on the UC News app that he alleged were false. One post from 2017 was headlined in Hindi: “2,000-rupee notes to be banned from midnight today”. Another headline of a 2018 post said: “Just now: War broke out between India and Pakistan.” is