CEO of Byju’s-owned WhiteHat Jr files $2.7m defamation suit against critic

In a defamation notice, Poonia was said to be in violation of trademark and copyright laws. The filing of the case follows “defamatory comments” made by Poonia about WhiteHat Jr.

The notice mentioned that the software engineer started releasing defamatory remarks in September this year by commenting on WhiteHat Jr’s advertisements, which featured an imaginary child called “Wolf Gupta.”

“The Defendant’s posts quickly turned sinister subsequent to the withdrawal of the advertisements, with the defendant claiming that Plaintiff no. 1 [WhiteHat Jr] had ‘murdered’ Wolf Gupta,” the notice read.

WhiteHat Jr also accused Poonia of hacking into the internal business communications platform it uses to access confidential information, including the company’s communications with its customers, and making them public online.

This comes on the heels of a recent and lengthy investigative report by The Morning Context which brought into question WhiteHat Jr’s online reputation management practices and where Poonia highlighted some of the company’s methods as well as claims of threats he’s received from the firm.

Besides this, child-focused coding platform Tekie, a competitor of WhiteHat Jr, accused the company of impersonating a student to attend one of Tekie’s classes. “We encountered a suspicious session where the student had their camera turned off, and the voice from their side sounded almost like a 30-year-old adult,” said Tekie co-founder Naman Mukund.