Social media claims about a smartphone catching fire within its packaging sparked a legal dispute earlier this month — with Samsung approaching the Delhi High Court. Controversy erupted after an anonymous account published a post about the ‘Samsung Galaxy S26 blast in the box” on Reddit and Instagram. The Delhi High Court has subsequently ordered the social media platform to release all available particulars of the user operating under the name ‘Techtalkwithmalik’ within three days.
According to a recent LiveLawBiz report, Samsung Electronics had filed an application before the Delhi HC seeking an interim injunction against the account. Justice Anup Jairam Bhambhani directed Reddit to furnish details but did not pass any immediate direction for removal of the post.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 was launched in February this year, and went on sale across the world on March 11.
What is the case?
The full order reveals that Samsung has submitted that a Galaxy S26 cellphone purchased by one Harshit Bhardwaj had allegedly caught fire. According to the counsel, it was bought from a Samsung dealer and later brought to a company service centre for detailed analysis.
“The service centre found that the cellphone battery had been pierced with a sharp object, leading to short circuiting of the electrodes and burning of the cellphone battery,” reads an excerpt from the order.
Counsel for the smartphone giant argued that the consumer grievances were not a part of the proceedings — focusing solely on the Reddit post. Samsung has argued that the post was completely “untrue since there was no blast nor did the incident occur with the cellphone in the box”. The company has remained unaware of the identity and particulars of ‘Techtalkwithmalik’ even as it pushed for the account to be deleted from the platform for spreading false news.
Lawyers for the defendant however argued that such an order could only be passed after hearing the individual out. Subsequently, the judge had given a three day deadline for them to unravel and share the identity of this unknown user.
Samsung flags 19-fold jump in profit
In somewhat tangential news, the case came days before the company flagged a 19-fold jump in second-quarter operating profit. Samsung Electronics surpassed its combined earnings over the past three years as it posted a record profit of $61 billion on July 7. But investors had remained unenthusiastic — quickly wiping more than $80 billion off its market value on concerns over how long the AI bonanza will last.
While Samsung’s memory business is expected to post another quarter of strong earnings, analysts told Reuters that losses at its foundry and logic chip (LSI) businesses were likely to widen because bonus expenses are allocated across the semiconductor division. Samsung plans to announce detailed results on July 30, including a breakdown of earnings of each of its business divisions.
