In a significant relief to jewellery giant Malabar Gold & Diamonds, the Bombay High Court has ordered major social media platforms, Meta, X (formerly Twitter), Google, and multiple news portals, to take down posts, stories, and online material that the company claims are defamatory and falsely portray it as sympathetic towards Pakistan.
Malabar had approached the court seeking urgent interim protection after being targeted online for engaging Alishba Khalid, a Pakistani-origin Instagram influencer based in the UK, to promote its new showroom in Birmingham. Khalid had earlier drawn controversy for her public remarks condemning India’s surgical strike during Operation Sindoor.
The company clarified before the court that the influencer was hired in good faith through JAB Studios, a UK-based agency, well before the Pahalgam terror attack, and without any knowledge of her past political statements. The collaboration, Malabar stressed, was purely aimed at attracting local customers in Birmingham.
However, after Khalid’s association became public, several individuals allegedly began circulating posts linking Malabar to Pakistan. The company submitted to the court that 442 URLs containing defamatory content had surfaced online, portraying it as “a sympathiser of Pakistan.” Malabar further alleged that some of these posts were strategically circulated by competitors seeking to tarnish its brand image during the peak festive season.
Hearing the plea, Justice Sandeep Marne granted ad-interim protection to Malabar, restraining platforms and portals from permitting any further circulation of such defamatory material. The court also directed that the posts flagged by the company must be taken down once Malabar submits the specific URLs to the concerned platforms.
The court fixed the matter for its next hearing on November 11, 2025, giving Malabar time to provide details of all objectionable links so that action can be taken.
For now, the order provides breathing space to Malabar Gold & Diamonds, which has maintained that it has no political affiliations and that its reputation was being unfairly maligned.
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