Whatsapp group admin not responsible for member's post: High Court

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has ruled that a Whatsapp group admin cannot be held responsible for the offensive content posted by a member of the group. "Admins can only add or remove members from the group. It is technically impossible for the admin to remove, restrict or censor the content posted by the members. For this reason, an admin cannot be held responsible if members post malicious content," Justice Dr Kauser Edappagath stated in his verdict.

The petitioner was Cherthala native Manuel, the admin of a WhatsApp group named 'Friends'. He had named two other people as admins. One of them had shared an obscene video of children in the group. Following this, the Ernakulam City Police registered a case against him as the first accused and Manuel as the second accused. Manuel approached the High Court seeking the quashing of the proceedings against him. The High Court quashed the proceedings against the petitioner.