A local Gurgaon court has summoned over a dozen big wigs of Chinese company Alibaba including its founder Jack Ma in connection with a petition filed by a former employee who alleged he was wrongfully fired after his alleged reported objections to what he perceived as uncalled censorship and alleged fake news on company apps.
Civil Judge Sonia Sheokand has issued a summons for Alibaba, Jack Ma and about a dozen individuals or company units, asking them to appear in court or through a lawyer on July 29. The court has also sought written responses from the company and its executives within 30 days.
The petitioner, Pushpandra Singh Parmar, worked as an associate director at the UC web office in Gurugram until October 2017 and is seeking Rs 2 crore as damages. He has alleged that the company used to censor content seen as unfavourable to China in its UC browser and UC news apps. He claimed that information was often showcased as false news, accused of being aimed "to cause social and political turmoil".
“In order to control any news related content to be published against China was automatically/manually rejected by an audit system evolved for this purpose,” the petition stated.
Parmar's lawyer Atul Ahlawat has refused to comment saying that the matter was sub-judice. UC India has so far not released any statement on the litigation. The case comes weeks after India cited security concerns, banning Alibaba's UC News, UC Browser and 57 other Chinese apps after a clash between the two country's forces on their border.
