Govt Bypassing Legal Safeguards To Order Content Takedown: X To K'taka HC

Elon Musk-led X Corp reportedly said that the Indian government is using a smart and ingenious workaround to bypass the legal safeguards laid down by the Supreme Court in a 2015 order with respect to take down of content or blocking of social media handles.

The company asked the Karnataka High Court, why the Indian government is following lengthy and complex procedure of safeguards under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act when a simpler route exists through Rule 3(1)(d) of the IT Rules and the Sahyog Portal to issue content takedown notices.

As per an ET report, social media platform X (erstwhile Twitter) has petitioned the HC challenging the way the government issues orders to take down content.

Notably, the union home ministry has a Sahyog portal to automate the process of sending notices to intermediaries. It enables collaboration between government agencies and social media intermediaries.

In Section 69A, content can be blocked only in the interest of sovereignty, security, public order, or similar grounds listed in Article 19(2) that deals with the fundamental right to freedom of speech expression.

As part of it, an inter-ministerial committee is required to review the request and provide affected parties an opportunity to be heard (except in emergencies), and record written reasons for the blocking order.

Appearing for X, senior counsel KG Raghavan, said Rule 3(1)(d) effectively seeks to undo the apex court ruling in the 2015 Shreya Singhal case and must be struck down, because it undermines the safeguards provided in Section 69A of the IT Act.

(The story will be updated soon)

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