The high court in Delhi has ordered Google and Facebook to remove all anonymous social media posts accusing the artist Subodh Gupta of sexual harassment and ordered Facebook, which owns Instagram, to reveal the identity of the person behind the account that first made the allegations.
Last year, many well-known Indian men, mostly in the film and media industries, had their names mentioned at the height of the #MeToo movement including Gupta, one of India’s leading artists.
The Instagram post, which appeared to be from a former female associate, accused Gupta of sexual misconduct including repeated requests for an assistant to pose nude.
Gupta strongly denied the allegations. He told the Mint newspaper last December: “I have never behaved in an inappropriate manner with any individual who worked with me and several of my former assistants can attest to this. These allegations are entirely false and fabricated.”
Gupta filed a defamation suit against what he called “unfounded, baseless sexual harassment allegations” published by the anonymous Instagram account.
On hearing that none of the alleged victims had revealed their identity or pressed charges, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw ruled last month that by 19 November, the date of the next hearing, Facebook had to provide details about the person behind the Instagram account.
Though based in Delhi, Gupta is internationally famous for making huge sculptures and installations out of everyday items such as stainless steel tiffin boxes, kitchen utensils, buckets, and milk pails that are found all over India. His work has been shown at festivals and biennales across the world.
The #MeToo movement stirred intense debate in India. Some welcomed it as long overdue in a country where the euphemism for sexual harassment, “eve-teasing”, appeared to make light of the problem. Others were uncomfortable with the naming and shaming of men who could not prove their innocence through due process of law over alleged acts committed many years previously.
