"Violating Indian Constitution"; Twitter, Meta called out for account suspension

The Indian Government on Tuesday called out social networking sites Meta and Twitter for the suspension of accounts that violated their community guidelines. This is a contrast of the 2019 filing of the Government's stance that the matter involving the suspension of suspend lawyer Sanjay Hegde's account, was to be resolved by Twitter and the lawyer.

Twitter suspended the account of lawyer Sanjay Hegde three years ago.

According to people with knowledge on the subject. The Ministry of Information Technology in a court filing last week said that the suspension violated the Indian constitution and right to free speech.

Last month, another filing was submitted to the court by the Government which said that Meta and Twitter should follow Indian laws that require the firms to give users a reasonable chance to defend themselves before a post is removed or the account suspended, except in extreme cases such as content relating to rape threats or terrorism, the people said, asking not to be identified as the details are private, NDTV has reported.

The ruling by the Delhi High Court on this batch of cases will provide a benchmark as to the censorship powers of tech companies. This ruling will affect the 1.3 billion people in the country, and comes at a time when Elon Musk's views on content moderation are in focus globally. The ruling will also add a new dimension to the Indian government's difference of opinion with social media firms.

Twitter declined to comment while Facebook and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology did not respond to requests for comments.

Public Duty

Both Meta and Twitter have been at odds with the current administration's bid, under the information technology rules of 2021, to regulate big social media. According to NDTV, last year in a court case, Meta has challenged the rules that can force its messaging platform WhatsApp to break its encryption, while Twitter has agreed to comply with the new rules.

Both Twitter and Meta have in separate filings defended their power to remove posts or user accounts saying they follow their community guidelines and terms of service agreed by users, according to the people familiar. Petitioners have argued that social media giants have practically gained a duopoly and they perform a public function.