X moves Karnataka HC against Sahyog portal order

X Corp appeals Karnataka High Court's ruling upholding the government's authority to issue content blocking orders via the Sahyog portal.

X Corp has filed an appeal before the Karnataka high court challenging a single judge’s decision that upheld the Union government’s authority to issue content blocking directions through the central Sahyog portal, which is used to automate notices to intermediaries to remove unlawful online content.

The appeal seeks to overturn the judgment delivered on September 24, which had dismissed X Corp’s plea questioning the scope of Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000. (Shutterstock)

The appeal, filed on November 14, seeks to overturn the judgment delivered on September 24, which had dismissed X Corp’s plea questioning the scope of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The appeal is yet to be numbered by the High Court registry. Once it is numbered, it will come up for hearing before a division bench.

In its original petition fuled in March this year, challenging the union government’s mandatory direction to social media intermediaries to join the Sahyog portal, X Corp had argued that officers of the Central Government do not have independent statutory power to issue blocking orders under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act. It had argued that such directions can only be issued under the detailed procedural framework prescribed in Section 69A of the IT Act, read with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

On September 24 this year, however, a single bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna had rejected this contention and dismissed X Corp’s plea holding that the government’s use of the Sahyog portal was legally valid and consistent with the scheme of the IT Act.

Justice Nagaprasanna had said at the time that content on social media needed to be regulated and that the Court has found no merit in the issues raised by X Corp in its plea.

The Union government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, had argued before the Court at the time that X’s refusal to join Sahyog was a “deliberate act” of non-cooperation that was hampering the government’s efforts to address “threats to public order and national security.”

SG Mehta had also warned that X Corp’s refusal to join the Portal might result in the social media intermediary losing its safe harbour protection and that it might attract prosecution under the IT Act.