An Indian court has summoned Chinese giant Alibaba and its founder Jack Ma. The summons has been sent by the company in connection with the alleged wrongful removal of an employee in India. The former employee who took the case on Alibaba says he objected to censorship and fake news on the company’s apps, after which he was fired from the job.
A few weeks ago, India banned 59 Chinese apps. These include Alibaba’s UC News and UC Browser. India stepped in to ban Chinese apps, citing a threat to national security, following a violent clash between Indian and Chinese troops along the border in eastern Ladakh. 20 Indian jawans were martyred in the clashes. The ban on apps was also criticized by China. Thereafter, India had sought a written reply from all the affected companies whether they had censored the content or worked for a foreign government or not.
Company censoring all content with China’s caliphate: former employee
According to a July 20 court filing, Pushpendra Singh Parmar, a former employee of Alibaba’s UC Web, alleged that the company used to censor all content in China’s caliphate and run its UC browser and UC News app Fake News, causing social and political instability. Parmar was associate director at UC Web’s Gurugram office till October 2017. He has sought $2.68 million (approximately Rs 2 crore) from the company as compensation.
Directed to appear before the court on July 29
Sonia Sheokand, a district court civil judge in Gurugram, told Alibaba, Jack Ma and nearly a dozen people/people. The company has issued summons against the units. According to the court document, the summons asked him to appear before the court on July 29 or send his lawyer to the court. The judge also asked the company and its executives to give written replies within 30 days.
Gracia is a senior writer at Get Ignite, where she covers media and advertising and co-hosts the Original Content podcast. Previously, she worked as a tech writer at Adweek, a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance. She attended Stanford University and now lives in Brooklyn.