Bengaluru: Twitter's plea challenging the Indian government's directives to remove certain tweets and accounts has been dismissed by the Karnataka High Court. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakhs on the social media giant, citing its conduct.
The court refused Twitter's request to stay the operation of the order. The company had approached the court in July 2022, contesting the blocking orders issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and arguing that they were arbitrary and violated freedom of speech and expression. In April 2023, the High Court questioned the government's failure to provide reasons for blocking specific accounts on Twitter in accordance with the takedown orders issued the previous year. The court emphasised the importance of transparency, noting that Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, under which the takedown request was made, necessitates the recording of reasons for such actions.
This decision comes after former CEO and co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, accused India of threatening to shut down the social media platform unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts critical of the government's handling of farmer protests in 2021. The Indian government refuted these claims, labelling them as false.
Deputy Minister for Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, tweeted that the court ruled that Twitter had received notices but failed to comply with them. The bench highlighted Twitter's delay in compliance, stating, "So you have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay... then all of sudden you comply and approach the court." Chandrasekhar also quoted the bench's remark, "You are not a farmer but a billion-dollar company," reported NDTV.
Last year, on June 28, the government sent a letter to Twitter, requesting compliance with the orders by July 4, warning that failure to do so would result in the platform losing its legal protection as an intermediary. If Twitter lost this protection, its executives could face fines and imprisonment of up to seven years for violations of IT laws committed by users. In response, Twitter challenged some of the blocking orders in court.
The government argued that as a foreign entity, Twitter cannot claim the enforcement of fundamental rights. However, Twitter informed the court that it was invoking the writ jurisdiction due to a violation of protocols prescribed under Section 69A of the IT Act. The company also claimed that foreign entities are entitled to rights under Article 14. The court then requested both Twitter and the government to clarify how Indian entities would be treated in the United States and other foreign jurisdictions regarding such matters, adjourning the hearing for two days.
Twitter has asserted that the government should have issued notices to the owners of the Twitter handles against whom blocking orders were issued. The social media company stated that it was prohibited from informing the account holders about the government's takedown orders.