PepsiCo has obtained an interim order from the Delhi High Court to delete hundreds of posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube, documents obtained by MediaNama reveal. PepsiCo confirmed the development in a statement to MediaNama. These posts, PepsiCo said in its petition, furthered the myth that PepsiCo's Kurkure corn puffs product contains plastic. The civil defamation suit compiles years of posts on the social media platforms, demanding that they be taken down. There are 3412 Facebook links, 20244 Facebook posts, 242 YouTube videos, 6 Instagram links, and 562 tweets that have been ordered removed. The Delhi High Court pronounced an interim John Doe order, telling the social media platforms to immediately block the posts that the petition brings forward, after considering "just exceptions". A John Doe order, known as an "Ashok Kumar" order in India, allows the company to get posts deleted from any unnamed person. The petition was first reported by Mint when it was limited to a few Lay's chips-related posts. The next date of the hearing in this case is 14th of November this year. As far as we know, this is the first reported instance of a private company getting social media platforms to take down content at this scale in India. This does remind us of IIPM getting websites critical of them blocked. In a statement to MediaNama, PepsiCo said, "This step has been taken to protect our brand equity, a matter that we take very seriously at PepsiCo." The company's full statement is at the end…
