WhatsApp Group Administrator Not Liable For Member’s Objectionable Post If There Is No Common Intention : Bombay High Court

A WhatsApp group administrator cannot be held liable for objectionable content posted by a member of the group, in the absence of common intention, the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has held. The court observed that merely acting as an administrator of a group on the messaging app ‘Whatsapp, would not amount to ‘common intention’ as the administrator cannot regulate content before it is posted on the group. “A group administrator cannot be held vicariously liable for an act of a member of the group, who posts objectionable content, unless it is shown that there was common intention or pre-arranged plan acting in concert pursuant to such plan by such member of a Whatsapp group and the administrator. Common intention cannot be established in a case of Whatsapp service user merely acting as a group administrator,” a division bench of Justices ZA Haq and MA Borkar observed.