Keralam High Court Issues Notices to Centre, State Over NoCap’s Blocked Facebook Page

Kochi: The Kerala High Court has issued notices to the Centre and the state governments over the blocking of the Facebook page of online media outlet NoCap. The court has directed them to submit their responses within 10 days. Notices have also been issued to the Kerala Police and Meta.

Justice K K Ziyad Rahman issued the notices on a petition filed by NoCap Editor-in-Chief Haider Ali. The court has sought a response on whether Meta took steps to remove the page and, if so, the reasons for doing so.

The Facebook page was blocked earlier this month under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, citing alleged involvement in unlawful activities. However, neither Meta nor the government has so far provided a clear explanation identifying which content published by NoCap was considered illegal.

The petition states that NoCap had 1.62 lakh followers on Facebook before the page was taken down. It also claims that the removal led to a significant decline in the outlet’s reach and revenue on the platform.

NoCap argued before the court that blocking the page without specifying which content was illegal violated its right to practise its profession.