Court tells platforms to delete posts tying Malabar Gold to Pakistan; influencer vetting under lens

New Delhi: The Bombay High Court has directed major platforms, Meta, X (formerly Twitter) and Google, along with several news portals, to immediately remove posts that falsely link Malabar Gold & Diamonds to Pakistan. 

A bench of Justice Sandeep Marne said a case was made out for an ad-interim injunction and ordered the content to be taken down.

In filings before the court, Malabar Gold submitted a list of 442 URLs carrying the disputed content and sought both deletion and restraint on further defamatory posts. 

The dispute stems from the brand’s UK campaign for a planned Birmingham showroom, where it engaged agency JAB Studios to source creators. 

One of the shortlisted creators was Alishba Khalid, a UK-based Instagram influencer of Pakistani origin. The company told the court that Khalid’s engagement predated the Pahalgam terror attack and her subsequent public comments condemning India’s “Operation Sindoor.” Malabar said it was not aware of her origin at the time and that her services were discontinued.

The court’s order targets misinformation and reputational harm rather than nationality. Still, the episode has immediate implications for marketers running cross-border creator programs. 

Brand-safety specialists point to a likely tightening of pre-engagement due diligence (including deeper reviews of public statements, political posts and geo-sensitive content), clear morality and termination clauses in contracts, and live monitoring during campaign flight. 

Legal and risk teams may also push for archive audits of approvals, crisis-response playbooks, and platform-specific takedown pathways to respond quickly if narratives turn defamatory.

Industry voices caution against framing this as a blanket shift away from collaborating with creators of any particular nationality. The more defensible takeaway is operational: improve screening, disclosures, and safeguards for all overseas creators, ensure timely disengagement where needed, and document actions to meet both legal and platform standards.