20 March, 2025 (Agency): The microblogging and social media platform X, formerly Twitter, has filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court against the Indian government, challenging the way the central government uses Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act (IT Act) to demand the removal of tweets and other content on the Elon Musk-owned website. X claims that government authorities in India are bypassing proper legal procedures and setting up an illegal system to block content online.
Based on the IT Act, platforms like X can lose their legal protection, known as safe harbour, if they do not remove or block content when instructed by government authorities. However, X argues that this section does not give the government the power to block content and that the authorities are misusing the provision to sidestep Section 69A – a detailed process with safeguards for blocking content, as laid out by India’s Supreme Court in the 2015 Shreya Singhal judgment – of the IT Act.
X claims that Section 69A allows content to be blocked only for specific reasons, such as protecting national security, and requires a review process. In contrast, Section 79(3)(b) has no clear rules and allows authorities to block content without proper checks. The company warned that this could lead to widespread censorship in India.
