E-Paper
HC rejects Elon Musk-led X Corp's challenge to India govt's content takedown mechanism
The Karnataka High Court has rejected Elon Musk-led X Corp's petition challenging the union government's mandate for social media intermediaries
The Karnataka High Court has quashed Elon Musk-led X Corp's petition challenging the Indian government's mandate for social media platforms to compulsorily join a central Sahyog portal, through which officials can directly issue content takedown orders.
X Corp, which runs the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, had challenged the entire concept of the Sahyog portal that allows many officials to order content takedown.
Owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk, X Corp saw it as a curb on free speech and other rights.
The court ruled there was no merit in X's legal challenge to quash the mechanism.
Musk, a self-described free-speech absolutist, has clashed with authorities in several countries over this issue. In India, X's case targeted the entire basis for tightened regulation in the world's most populous country.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has since 2023 ramped up efforts to police the internet, Reuters noted in its report. It has allowed multiple officials to submit takedown orders directly to tech firms through the government website Sahyog.
Sahyog, the government says, was developed to automate the process of sending notices to intermediaries (social media platforms) by the appropriate government or its agency under the IT Act, for removal or disabling of access to any information, data or communication link, being used to commit an unlawful act. The portal, it says, aims to bring together all authorised agencies and intermediaries on one platform to ensure immediate action.
What X argued, and what judge said
X had said the measures were unconstitutional and amounted to censorship. Amid the legal wrangling between lawyers from both sides, X at one point said every "Tom, Dick, and Harry" government official had been authorised to issue content takedown orders.
According to news agency Reuters, Justice M Nagaprasanna said in dismissing X's case: “Every platform that seeks to operate within the jurisdiction of our nation, which they do, must accept that liberty is yoked with responsibility.”
X can appeal against the ruling, including in the Supreme Court.
A representative for X in India did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the ruling, news agency Reuters said in its report.
The BJP-led central government had argued that the new system tackled a proliferation of unlawful content and ensured accountability online.
The government also said many other tech companies, including Meta and Alphabet's Google, support its actions.
It argued that platforms could serve as vehicles for "spreading hate and division" that threatens social harmony, while "fake news" on the platform has sparked unspecified law-and-order issues.
