Elon Musk-owned X has suspended the account of Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, aka ‘The Liver Dr’, globally, on legal grounds as Bengaluru Civil Court passed an ad-interim ex-parte injunction in the Himalaya Wellness case.
The parent company of Liv 52 had moved the court alleging that The Liver Dr who is known as an AYUSH critic, had made defamatory allegations against the company and its products via his posts.
In its complaint, Himalaya Wellness also claimed that the statements made by the Kerala-based hepatologist were not only false and unjustified but also made the company incur losses.
In the aftermath of X withholding the Liver Dr account, various users not only expressed their support for the Kerala-based doctor but also made the #BringBackTheLiverDoc trend for a while on the microblogging platform.
I think @theliverdr case is gonna be a classic case of the Streisand effect. Himalaya trying 2silence him using a lawsuit hs backfired on them. The whole thing has blown out of proportion.
Let's see how it turns out. I'm sure it's gonna be nothing short of victory for science pic.twitter.com/gNOZ556wcs— Pranav Radhakrishnan (@ScienceIsDope_) September 28, 2023
— Raj Nayak (@rajcheerfull) September 28, 2023
I am loving the support. So many silent spectators are speaking today. This is necessary for the real science and scientific temperament. But I am waiting for my notice, i made video with him ?
— Chirag Barjatya (@chiragbarjatyaa) September 28, 2023
Does the onus to point out facts/half truths rest upon @theliverdr ?
He went beyond his call of duty to give his opinion for greater awareness.@elonmusk X is a poorer place when these different opinions are
silenced.
Maybe X can be changed to HI- herd influence— J D (@dadsbob) September 28, 2023
The Ayurveda pharma company in its complaint also mentioned that the Liver Dr purportedly promoted its competitors- Cipla and Alchem.
Taking all this into consideration, the Bengaluru Civil Court passed its order under Sector 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908, which restrains the expert from tweeting, making or publishing, re-tweeting and republishing any defamatory remarks against Himalaya Wellness or its products under Sector 79 of the Information Technology Act 2000.
“There is a need to issue an ad-interim ex-parte injunction directing the party who is posting such materials to remove them at the earliest so as to minimise the damage caused to the person who is affected by such postings in any manner,” the Court statement read.