Elon Musk's X sues govt over unlawful censorship

Microblogging site X, owned by tech giant Elon Musk, has reportedly filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court against the Indian government for using the IT Act to block content on its platform.

Formerly known as Twitter, the platform has challenged the government for the way it uses Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act (IT Act).

The social media platform has claimed that Indian government authorities are not following proper legal procedures and have set up an illegal system to block content online.

The company claims that while Section 69A of the law allows content to be blocked only for specific reasons, such as protecting national security, and does require a review process, Section 79(3)(b) does not have any clear rules and allows authorities to block content without proper checks.

Based on the IT Act, platforms like X can lose their safe harbour legal protection if they fail to remove or block content as directed by government authorities.

It has argued that the government is misusing the provision to sidestep Section 69A – a detailed process and safeguards for blocking content, as laid out by India’s Supreme Court in the 2015 Shreya Singhal judgment – of the IT Act.

The company has warned that this could lead to widespread censorship in India.

The platform has expressed concerns about losing user trust as random blocking may hurt its business in India.

In its petition, X also accused the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of encouraging ministries, states, and police to create a parallel system to block content.

As proof, X shared examples of blocking orders from the Railways ministry, sent in February 2024.

Meanwhile, X has also opposed the government’s push for it to join Sahyog, a portal run by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C), aimed at managing Section 79(3)(b) orders.

It has described Sahyog as a “Censorship Portal” and claims there is no legal basis for creating this system or for forcing companies to appoint special officers for it.

The company stated that it is already following the rules under the 2021 IT Guidelines, which require platforms to appoint grievance and compliance officers.

At a hearing on March 17, Justice M Nagaprasanna advised X to approach the court if the government takes serious action against the company.

Meanwhile, the government stated that no punitive measures have been taken against X for refusing to join the Sahyog portal.