Delhi HC orders Meta to take down ‘pirated’ Zee content from Facebook

The Delhi High Court on Monday directed global technology giant Meta Platforms to remove Facebook posts that allegedly included pirated content belonging to Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. (ZEEL), granting the broadcaster immediate interim relief in its fresh copyright infringement suit against the social media company.

Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani issued summons to Meta Platforms after hearing Zee Entertainment's plea and directed the social media company to take down the identified Facebook URLs hosting the allegedly infringing copyrighted content.

Zee argued that several Facebook pages were illegally uploading its television programmes and clips, allowing users to watch them without permission. They also alleged that such pirated videos continued to resurface despite repeated takedown requests.

"For the moment, because it is at the ex parte stage, let's first take down all this content and we will take it from there," the court said in its oral order.

Zee told the court that while Meta occasionally removed specific videos after receiving takedown notices, the remedy was ineffective as the infringing content continued to resurface on Facebook in different geographical locations.

The broadcaster presented screenshots of multiple Facebook pages in court to demonstrate how its copyrighted programs were allegedly being uploaded and monetized without authorization. Zee argued that Meta also profited from this arrangement, as the pirated videos continued to drive high traffic and user engagement on its platform.

The court agreed to order a takedown of specific posts identified by Zee, but declined to suspend or block the Facebook pages themselves. "The court is not persuaded, at this stage, to direct the blocking of the accounts… [Meta] is directed to take down the content in the URLs set out," Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani said.

The court also asked Zee for a soft copy of all Facebook links containing allegedly infringing content so that Meta could act on them without delay. "Give us a soft copy and I will ask them to take it down, but blocking of accounts we'll see after they come," the court said.

The court raised a major question during the hearing: how were the allegedly infringing pages obtaining Zee's content if they were not simply copying them from the broadcaster'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 noted that both parties had participated in pre-litigation mediation in 2024, during which Zee even offered to have its technical experts work with Meta to develop better piracy detection and prevention systems. According to Zee, those efforts failed to produce a lasting solution. The court has now directed Meta and the remaining defendants to respond to the allegations.

Queries emailed to Zee and Meta remained unanswered at the time of publishing.

Zee’s copyright battles

This is not the first time Zee has sued a company for copyright infringement. On May 5, the Delhi High Court passed an order sending a copyright infringement dispute between the Reliance-Disney joint venture and Zee Entertainment to mediation.

Zee had earlier sued JioStar for $3 million in damages, alleging the unauthorized use and exploitation of works from its music division on the streaming platform and certain television channels. The company alleged that JioStar continued hosting and exploiting content containing Zee’s copyrighted works even after the licensing agreements signed between the parties in 2017 and 2020 had expired.