Twitter legally challenges content take down orders by Indian government
PremiumTwitter India will pursue judicial review of Indian content takedown orders, as per a Reuters source
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Alleging abuse of power by Indian officials, Twitter has moved the Karnataka High Court against the government's orders, according to a Reuters report. Twitter was warned by India's IT ministry of criminal proceedings if it did not comply with some content orders.
Ministry of Electronics and IT had given the social media platform time till 4 July to comply with its orders and failing to do, Twitter may lose intermediary status, which means it will be liable for all the comments posted on its platform. Now a day after the deadline ended Twitter took a legal recourse.
A notice was issued on June 27 to Twitter to comply with all government orders issued till date. Twitter was issued notices earlier this month but it did not comply with it. This is the final notice, PTI has reported citing a government source. Earlier in May too, the IT Ministry issued a similar notice to the micro-blogging platform, directing it to appoint a resident grievance officer a resident chief compliance officer, and a nodal contact person.
Interestingly meanwhile, a report by IANS today claimed Twitter has complied with government orders and taken down controversial tweets.
Twitter has been at loggerheads with the government on several occasions and has been asked by Indian authorities over the past year to act on content including accounts supportive of an independent Sikh state and dozens of tweets that were critical of the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a document filed by the platform on June 26, it blocked over 80 links on its website, specific posts and number of accounts after told to do so by the Indian government. Twitter alleged it was asked by the government to block multiple accounts and some tweets from advocacy group Freedom House, journalists, politicians, and supporters of farmers protest last year, according to a document filed by the platform on June 26.
This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.
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