The participants of the popular reality show Shark Tank India Season 3 and 2, who have been locked out of their ad and social media accounts by Meta allegedly at the behest of Sony Pictures Entertainment India (SPNI) for alleged copyright violations, wonder why judges of the show are silent over their plight.
Meta and Sony’s stern action, say the affected D2C startups (about two dozen in number), has resulted in loss of their business because they largely advertise through social media and influencer marketing. Most of their sales also come through social media channels.
Some affected brands allege that they reached out to Shark Tank India's judges-referred to as Sharks- seeking their intervention in the matter but to no avail. Notably, judges are India’s celebrated entrepreneurs whose startups have acquired unicorn status.
“I reached out to Namita Thapar last month to apprise her of my issue. She perhaps reached out to Sony but the channel didn't relent,” claimed Roshaan Mishra, founder of Mumbai-based BrandsDaddy and the Season2 participant. Mishra alleged that he sought to create another account, but it was also banned by Meta.
Vivek Krishna, former media professional and founder of Delhi-based Ayurvedic Men's Sexual Wellness brand-Sukham, is among the affected ones. Krishna told e4m, “Shark Anupam Mittal, the founder of Shaadi.com, was at the forefront of the Indian startups’ fight against tech giant Google for their rights when apps were suspended on Play Store. It was quite encouraging for all of us. We expect him and the other sharks to raise their voice for us as well.”
Even if it is a copyright violation, as Sony claims, the punishment meted out to us is too harsh. You can’t stop our business channels just because we shared our own episode on social media, brands allege.
“All we did was upload some reels and posts of our own episode and thank Shark Tank India. Suddenly I found all our Instagram and ad accounts blocked. Our business crashed. This is not done. There should be some resolution,” said Manjeet Singh, founder of FlexifyMe, a Pune-based health-tech firm that provides physiotherapy and other pain-relieving services.
Pathik Patel, the Founder of an Ahmedabad-based FMCG startup Fit and Flex and Season 3 participant, echoes the sentiments. “Affected entrepreneurs have written several social media posts about their plight. Still, none of the judges came forward to support us.”
Some even pointed out that sharks themselves shared show’s clippings on their platform and shared a video posted by Anupam Mittal on his Instagram account to support their claim.
Brands claim that their repeated pleas to Sony and Meta didn’t help even as they removed all Shark Tank content from their channels. After running from pillar to post, some startups have even taken a legal recourse and served legal notices to both Sony and Meta.
Judges’ response
e4m reached out to judges Namita Thapar (ED, Emcure), Anupam Mittal (Founder of Shadi.com), Deepinder Goyal (CEO of Zomato), Aman Gupta (Co-founder & CMO Boat) and Vineeta Singh (SUGAR) to get their perspective on the matter. None of them reverted despite repeated requests. The copy will be updated as and when they respond.
Only Ritesh Agarwal (OYO founder) family office responded to e4m queries. It stated, "Only one of the founders of the companies we have invested in had reached out to us with concerns around copyright violations. We had promptly put them in touch with Sony and their account was subsequently restored. We urge all founders to adhere to legal standards and respect intellectual property rights."
The issue
e4m on June 20 covered the plight of these startups last week explaining how they ended up being locked out of their ad accounts and social media pages or collab feature disabled for months after sharing Shark Tank episode clips. SPNI dubbed it as copyright and intellectual property rights (IPR) violations with Meta promptly taking action on the said FB and Insta plages.
Sony & Meta response
e4m reached out to Sony and Meta again. Their response was awaited till the time of writing these lines.
Earlier, SPNI said in a statement, “Shark Tank India has emerged as a pivotal platform, igniting the dreams of aspiring entrepreneurs nationwide. However, because of its growing popularity, some participants are using the show’s content and branding without permission for their own commercial ventures, clearly violating SPNI’s intellectual property rights (IPR) and copyright laws. In response, we have taken decisive action to curb such infringements, implementing rigorous checks to safeguard the IPR while also recognizing and respecting the contestants' achievements.”
