Elon Musk-Owned X Moves K’taka HC Against Centre’s Content Blocking Orders

Adding a new chapter to its legal battle against the Indian government’s content regulation framework, Elon Musk-owned X has filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court challenging the Centre’s use of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology (IT) Act to block content.

The company has contended that Section 79(3)(b) contradicts the Supreme Court’s Shreya Singhal judgment, which permits content blocking only through Section 69A framework of the IT Act or court orders, Hindustan Times reported.

The social media platform has argued that Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act creates an “illegal parallel system” for censorship that bypasses constitutional safeguards.

Notably, Section 69A allows the government to block content for reasons like national security and public order by citing procedural safeguards (written orders, review committees, and transparency). 

Meanwhile, Section 79(3)(b) requires intermediaries like X to remove content when notified by the government. If the intermediary doesn’t comply with the government, it can lose its safe harbour protection and be held legally responsible for the content. 

During the hearing on the matter on Monday (March 17), X also sought protection from the court for not onboarding an employee on the Sahyog portal created by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to “streamline” Section 79(3)(b) orders.

Calling it a “Censorship Portal”, X contended that the law doesn’t mandate the creation of Sahyog or a statutory requirement to appoint a nodal officer for such a portal.

The HC permitted the social media platform to approach it if the government took “precipitative action” against it.

This isn’t the first time when X has been at logger heads with the Centre. It is also involved in a legal tussle with the Indian government over the takedown orders issued by the latter pertaining to the farmers’ protest in 2021.

The latest development marks another instance of tussle between a big tech company and the government. Musk’s AI model Grok is also under the scanner of the electronics and IT ministry over its objectionable content. 

Last year, Google found itself in trouble over some of the answers given by its AI chatbot Gemini in response to questions about Prime Minister Narendra Modi.