Police case against Byju’s founder for allegedly publishing misleading information

Details:

• The complainant, a company called Crimeophobia, alleged that Byju’s curriculum for the civil services exam claimed that India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was a nodal agency of the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The complainant added that the CBI had denied the claim.
• The edtech firm responded to the complaint saying the material published on its platform is “factually correct” and based on a “publicly available official memorandum” issued by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs.

Dive deeper:

• Edtech firms in India have often come under scrutiny over content quality and for dubious marketing strategies. Last year, India’s regulatory body for advertisements directed Byju’s-owned WhiteHat Jr to pull down ads for allegedly making unsubstantiated claims.
• In May this year, WhiteHat Jr dropped a US$2.7 million defamation case against a critic who had publicly posted confidential messages from the coding lessons platform in order to lay bare the customer relationship management techniques that the startup allegedly used to silence criticism online.
• Yesterday, WhiteHat Jr founder and CEO Karan Bajaj announced his exit from the edtech firm a year after it was taken over by Byju’s in a US$350 million deal.