November 23, 2024 10:55 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
'Third World War has begun:' Ex-Ukraine military commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny | UK-India Free Trade Agreement negotiations to resume in early 2024 | UK can arrest Benjamin Netanyahu if he visits country based on ICC warrant | Centre to send over 10,000 additional soldiers to violence-hit Manipur amid fresh violence | Chhattisgarh: 10 Maoists killed during encounter with security forces in Sukma
Twitter approaches court against Centre's orders to take down content
Twitter row
Image credit: Pixabay

Twitter approaches court against Centre's orders to take down content

| @indiablooms | 05 Jul 2022, 10:29 pm

Bengaluru/IBNS: Micro-blogging site Twitter has approached the court, challenging the Centre's orders to take down content amid a heightened face-off with the government. 

Calling some orders arbitrary, Twitter sought a judicial review of the orders.

Meanwhile, the Centre reiterated that the law must be obeyed.

"In India, all including foreign Internet intermediaries/platforms have right to court n judicial review. But equally ALL intermediary/platforms operating here, have unambiguous obligation to comply with our laws n rules (sic)," tweeted Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

In its plea to the Karnataka High Court Tuesday, Twitter said the government ordered a block on some content posted by political parties' handles.

According to Twitter, such orders amount to a violation of Freedom of speech.

In others cases, the user was not notified, said Twitter, which has more than 24 million users in India.

The US-based micro-blogging site's attempt to get a judicial review of disputed content is seen as a direct confrontation with the government.

Twitter has largely not complied with government orders to take down content.

On June 28, the government wrote to Twitter asking it to comply with the orders by July 4, saying it will otherwise lose its legal shield as an intermediary. 

Losing the legal shield would mean that Twitter executives could be fined and jailed for upto seven years in cases of IT law violation by users.

Hence, Twitter responded by challenging some of the blocking orders in court.

The new IT rules make social media platforms more accountable for third-party content.

The tweets the government wanted to be blocked are linked to farmers' protests and the handling of the Covid pandemic.

The government alleged the posts were spreading misinformation.
 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.