Why has Twitter decided to move Karnataka HC against Indian government?

Going against the content takedown order of the central government, Twitter has decided to approach the Karnataka High Court against NDA, seeking to overturn the orders issued for the social networking site.

Twitter’s move against the Centre, which was initially reported by news agency Reuters, came soon after an order issued by the Union Electronics and Information Technology Ministry, which warned Twitter of penal action if certain posts on the social media site weren’t blocked.

The U.S. social media company’s attempt to get a judicial review is part of a growing confrontation with New Delhi over content regulation. Twitter was warned by India’s IT ministry of criminal proceedings if it did not comply with some orders, as per Reuters reports.

Why did Twitter decide to sue Centre?

Twitter has been asked by Indian authorities over the past year to act on content including accounts supportive of an independent Sikh state, posts alleged to have spread misinformation about protests by farmers and tweets critical of the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the Indian government, many big social media companies have not been complying with the Centre’s orders to remove such content from their platforms despite several requests. Union IT Ministry had also warned Twitter of criminal proceedings if it didn’t comply with the content takedown requests.

Meanwhile, Twitter has approached the Karnataka High Court against the Centre saying that some of their orders failed to give notice to the authors of such content. It also said that the removal of several tweets can step on freedom of speech and expression.

The row between Twitter and the Indian government flared up when the social media site failed to fully comply with the order issued by New Delhi to take down some of the content posted regarding the farmers’ protests against the government.

Twitter has also faced a backlash in India for blocking accounts of influential individuals, including politicians, citing violations of its policies.

Though the Indian government has not commented on Twitter’s case against it, New Delhi has backed its content removal policy for Twitter, saying that such measures are necessary since the companies have violated the constitutional rights of Indians.

(With Reuters inputs)

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