Liver doc says all post on X ‘scientific’, to challenge ban

New Delhi: After being suspended from X, Dr Abby Phillips, popularly known as Liver doc, claims all his posts on the social media platform have been “scientific” and with “good evidence”.

On Thursday, Dr. Philips’s X account was suspended after an interim injunction order issued by a Bengaluru court in response to a defamation claim by Himalaya Wellness Company.

In an Instagram post, the popular hepatologist said he aims to legally challenge the ban.

“Unfortunately, my Twitter account was suspended because the Himalaya company filed an injunction against me in the Bangalore Civil Court and the judgement was unfortunately not favouring me. And so my Twitter account is withheld, and this is only in India. But people outside can see my Twitter contents,” he said.

The doctor's withheld social media account on X says, “@theliverdr has been withheld globally in response to a legal demand.”

The Kerala-based clinician scientist termed the ban as “very unfortunate” and said that he has been “just scientific, in everything that I have been putting up on Twitter.”

Contrary to popular claims that he is supporting the big pharma companies, Dr. Philips said his content has been “without any bias, just following the real scientific method”. He said the injunction order states that he has defamed Himalaya and its products “through baseless allegations, which is actually not true.”

“Everything that I put up (is) with good evidence backing my claims.”

He said, “He has not received any court documents or notifications from legal of Himalaya, regarding this injunction notice or the proceedings of this injection notice and it was just a unilateral decision without hearing my side of it. So we will fight it.”

Meanwhile, many X users, including from the medical fraternity, applauded the doctor for his informative posts and his fight against misinformation. Some users also called for boycotting Himalaya and its products.

“Suspending TheLiverDoc account for an allegedly defamatory tweet is disproportionate,” Sajan Poovayya, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India wrote on X.

“Emotions supercede evidence based matters. Very unfortunate Sir. Path of Truth always finds hurdles like these, more power to you,” wrote a user from the medical fraternity.

However, some also voiced criticism for his critical stance on alternative medicine.

“Good thing...backed by scientific evidence?? Twitter is the platform for scientific evidence?...who is to say the experiment design was not biased...prove it in court and come back Mr liver guy,” said a user.

“This guy regularly posted misinformation that his followers lapped up just because they hated any form of alternative medicine we need regulation on big pharma shills on social media misguiding people,” wrote another.