WhatsApp admins not liable for members’ posts: LHC – Business Recorder

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has held that mere creation or administration of a WhatsApp group does not, by itself, make the creator or administrator criminally liable for every post made by its members. The court passed this order in a bail application of one Syed Abdul Mannan facing a case of sharing blasphemous and sacrilegious posts, allegedly. The court dismissed the bail as the petitioner failed to make out a case for further inquiry and directed the trial court to expedite the trial. READ ALSO: ’Protecting the privacy of your phone number’: WhatsApp will soon offer usernames The court observed that mere failure by an administrator to remove objectionable content does not amount to dissemination or abetment. Such inaction may become evidentially relevant when considered with other circumstances showing conscious facilitation, encouragement, common intention, conspiracy, abetment or intentional participation, or where a statutory duty to act exists, the court added. The court remarked that liability may, however, arise where the group is created for an unlawful purpose, where the administrator himself participates in the circulation of such content, facilitates or encourages its circulation, acts in concert with others, or where common intention, conspiracy or abetment is shown from the
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