Following a warning from the Indian government that non-compliance with content removal orders could result in “severe consequences,” Twitter Inc. has filed a petition with an Indian high court asking it to overturn the government’s removal orders.
The social media behemoth submitted a writ petition to the Karnataka High Court on July 5, seeking judicial review of certain aspects of the content subject to removal orders.
Twitter contended that the content suppression orders were “overbroad and arbitrary,” failed to warn the founders of the content, and were disproportionate.
Twitter believes that this censorship violates the constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech. This is especially true when the motivation behind censorship is not made obvious.
According to EPW, “censorship in India was, and still is, historically rooted in the discourse of protecting Indian values from outside forces and building and maintaining strong national unity post-independence.”
Several blocking orders issued to Twitter cite Section 69A but did not clarify how the blocked content violated it. Section 69A authorizes the Indian government to restrict citizens’ access to certain types of content to maintain national security.
India’s Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, explained in a tweet that all international internet intermediaries — including social media platforms — that operate within the country are obligated to comply with the laws of India.
In June, India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT issued a warning to Twitter’s chief compliance officer, threatening criminal prosecution for failing to comply with the government’s content blocking directives.
In the past, Twitter has complied with India’s directives. In 2021, Twitter refused to fully comply with a request from the government of India. There are roughly 24 million Twitter users in India.
The government requested that Twitter remove accounts and postings that, according to New Delhi, were disseminating false information about antigovernment demonstrations by farmers, ratcheting up tensions between the Indian government and Twitter.
Several government ministers in India abandoned Twitter in 2021 in favor of Koo, an Indian social media platform. The number of social media material removal requests made by the Indian government was particularly high compared to other countries.
The government of India is contemplating making a few changes to its regulations. One change would be establishing a government appeals panel that has the authority to overturn the decisions made by social media companies regarding the moderation of users’ content.
