A local court in India has issued summons to the Alibaba group and its founder, Jack Ma, after a former employee approached it and claimed that he objected to censorship and fake news on company apps, for which he was allegedly fired.
According to a report in Reuters, court filings showed that the ex-employee, identified as Pushandra Singh Parmar, alleged that Alibaba's subsidiary companies -- UC Browser and UC News, would censor content that could be considered unfavourable to China and also promoted fake news.
The summons was issued by Civil Judge Sonia Sheokand, who was hearing the case in a district court in Gurugram, and asked Jack Ma and other individuals associated with the company to either appear in front of the court, either personally or through a lawyer, by July 29.
The Reuters report adds that Pushandra also included clippings of some posts on the UC News app, stating in his court filing that, "In order to control any news related content to be published against China was automatically/manually rejected by an audit system evolved for this purpose (sic)."
The court case comes weeks after the ban on Chinese apps announced by the Indian government, amid heightening tensions between the two neighbouring countries at the border.
The Indian government had banned 59 Chinese apps, which included TikTok, UC Browser, UC News, WeChat and ShareChat.
Following this, it was reported that UC Web was slashing nearly 90% of its 350-strong workforce in India as the company suspended its operations in the country.
Founded in 1999 in an underground garage, Alibaba has grown into one of the world's most profitable companies. In September last year, Jack Ma stepped down as Chairman of the multi-billion-dollar e-commerce behemoth's Board of Directors, following which Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Daniel Zhang took over the post.
Meanwhile, the Indian government's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has directed the 59 banned Chinese apps to strictly adhere to the orders or face action in case of violation.
"These measures have been undertaken since there is credible information that these apps are engaged in activities which are prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order," a statement from MeitY's on June 29 following the announcement of the ban, had said.
With IANS inputs