- Sunday, May 12, 2024
Justice Krishna S Dixit of Karnataka high court told the social media giant that it had not given any reason for delaying compliance, and then all of sudden, it complied and approached the court.
By: Shubham Ghosh
AN Indian court on Friday (30) dismissed social media giant Twitter’s plea challenging directions of the Narendra Modi government to take down some tweets and accounts. The American company owned by Elon Musk was also slapped with a fine of Rs 50 lakh (£48,271) over its conduct. The court also turned down Twitter’s request to stay the order’s operation.
Justice Krishna S Dixit of Karnataka high court said, “You [Twitter] have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay…then all of sudden you comply and approach the court,” according to Live Law.
“You are not a farmer but a billion-dollar company.”
The judge said he was convinced with the Indian government’s argument that it not only has the power to ask the social media giant to take down tweets but it can also ask it to block accounts.
Twitter had moved the court in Bengaluru last July challenging the blocking orders from the ministry of electronics and information technology, describing them arbitrary and contrary to the freedom of speech and expression.
In April, the high court asked the Modi government why it had not cited reasons for blocking some Twitter accounts in light of last year’s order.
The court had said that the entire world was moving towards transparency and Section 69A of the country’s Information Technology Act seeks recording of reasons for takedowns.
The court’s decision comes weeks after Twitter’s former CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey accused India of threatening to shut down the platform on its soil if it did not comply with orders to restrict accounts that criticised the government’s handling of the farmers’ protests in 2021.
This is an outright lie by @jack – perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history
Facts and truth@twitter undr Dorsey n his team were in repeated n continuous violations of India law. As a matter of fact they were in non-compliance with law… https://t.co/SlzmTcS3Fa
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) June 13, 2023
The government hit back at Dorsey saying his claims were not true. India’s junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar countered that Twitter was served notices but it refused to comply.
On June 28 last year, the Indian government wrote to Twitter asking to abide by the orders by July 4 and cautioned that failing to do so would result in the company losing its legal shield as an intermediary.
By losing the legal shield, Twitter could see its executives getting fined or jailed for up to seven years in instances of violation of IT law by users. The social media giant responded by moving the court to challenge some of the blocking orders, NDTV reported.
The government argued that Twitter could not claim enforcement of fundamental rights as it is a foreign entity. The latter then told that court that it was invoking the writ jurisdiction for violation of protocols given under Section 69A of the IT legislation.
The court then asked both Twitter and the government to clarify how Indian entities would be dealt with in the USand foreign jurisdictions on such issues, before adjourning the hearing for some days later, the NDTV report added.