Delhi HC orders Meta to take down ‘pirated’ Zee content from Facebook
The Delhi High Court on Monday directed global tech giant Meta Platforms to remove Facebook posts allegedly containing pirated content by Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL), granting immediate interim relief to the streamer in its fresh copyright infringement case against the social media company.
After hearing Zee Entertainment’s plea, Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani issued a summons to Meta Platforms and directed the social media company to remove identified Facebook URLs hosting allegedly copyrighted content.
Zee, a few people Facebook pages were illegally uploading television shows and clips and allowing users to watch them without permission. They also claimed that such pirated videos keep resurfacing despite repeated takedown requests.
In its oral decision, the court said, “Since it is at the unilateral stage for now, let’s first remove all this content and continue from there.”
Zee told the court: Meta would occasionally remove certain videos after receiving takedown notices; The solution was ineffective as infringing content continued to resurface on Facebook in different geographic locations.
The broadcaster submitted screenshots of multiple Facebook pages to the court to allege how its copyrighted programs were uploaded without permission and how they were monetized. Zee argued that Meta also profits from this arrangement as pirated videos continue to drive high traffic and user engagement on its platform.
The court ordered the removal of certain posts identified by Zee but refused to suspend or block Facebook pages. “The court is not convinced at this stage to block the accounts… [Meta] Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said “it is directed to remove the content at the specified URLs”.
The court also asked Zee for an electronic copy of all Facebook links containing allegedly infringing content so that Meta could take action without delay. “Give us an electronic copy, I will ask them to remove it, but we will see about blocking the accounts after they come,” the court said.
The court raised an important question during the hearing: How did the allegedly infringing pages obtain Zee’s content if they were not simply copying it from the publisher’s own Facebook page? Zee informed the court that it had been trying to resolve the issue with Meta for nearly two years.
The broadcaster stated that both parties participated in pre-litigation mediation in 2024, even offering Zee’s technical experts to work with Meta to ensure better development. Piracy detection and prevention systems. According to Zee, these efforts failed to produce a permanent solution. The court has now ordered Meta and the other defendants to respond to the allegations.
Emailed queries to Zee and Meta remained unanswered at the time of publication.
Zee’s copyright wars
This isn’t the first time Zee has sued a company for copyright infringement. On May 5, the Delhi High Court passed an order sending the copyright infringement dispute between the Reliance-Disney joint venture and Zee Entertainment to mediation.
Zee had previously filed a lawsuit against JioStar for $3 million for alleged unauthorized use and exploitation of works in its music section on the streaming platform and certain television channels. The company alleged that JioStar continued to host and use content containing Zee’s copyrighted works even after the licensing agreements signed between the parties in 2017 and 2020 expired.
