Govt Calls For Dismissal Of Twitter’s Plea In Karnataka HC, Says Platform Can’t Be Arbiter Of Free Speech: Report

In a submission before the Karnataka High Court (HC), the union government has called for dismissal of the writ petition filed by Twitter challenging the legality of a series of ‘blocking orders’ issued by the authorities under the Information Technology Act, 2000. 

According to Moneycontrol, the government has sought the dismissal on the grounds of maintainability, saying that Twitter is a foreign registered body and cannot seek to defend Article 19, Article 14 or Article 21 of the Constitution like the ‘citizens of India’ or ‘natural persons’.

The government made the observations in a statement of objections filed before the HC on September 1. Currently, the court has given the Centre time to file its reply in the matter. The next hearing in the case is scheduled on September 8. 

Citing the premise of ‘foreign commercial entity’, the government argued that remedy sought by the plea under Article 226 or Article 32 of the Indian constitution is not available for the social media platform. 

Taking potshots at the US-based social media giant, the union government argued that intermediary platforms such as Twitter cannot be the arbiter of free speech, and added that such platforms should not be allowed to determine which content may cause issues related to public order and national security. 

Rebutting Twitter’s claims, the government said that the evidence submitted by the social media platform as part of the trial is ‘incorrect’. 

The Centre also rejected Twitter’s contention that no justification was provided for blocking content under Section 69A. In its affidavit, the Centre reportedly said that it shares ‘complete information’ with Twitter and other platforms, including justification for application of the said Section, prior to meetings held with the intermediaries in this regard. 

It is pertinent to note that while Twitter has submitted the details of the blocking orders in a sealed cover, the Indian government also has submitted ‘evidence’ related to the matter in a sealed cover. 

Tussle Over Compliance

One of the major takeaways from the government’s submission is that it has sought removal of Twitter’s safe harbour immunity in the country over non-compliance of orders. 

Certain provisions of the Section 79 of the IT Act grant immunity to intermediaries from content posted by third parties.

Citing an instance whereby an account was allegedly unblocked by Twitter despite action against it under Section 69A, the government said that the incident amounted to deliberate non-compliance and abetment in the crime of publishing actionable content. 

The government also claimed that the social media platform delayed prompt action on orders issued by it. 

The government pointed out that by not complying with many of its orders at the time of their issuance, Twitter ‘purposely caused inordinate delay’. By waiting for a year to take action in certain cases and comply with the orders, the platform allowed the content to become more viral.

The affidavit also called for dissuading the social media platform from issuing notices to users whose content is being blocked on the grounds of national security and public order. Informing such users would cause ‘more harm’ as the content is ‘anti-India, seditious’ and has the potential to ‘incite violence’, the government argued.

The statement of objection further noted that the ‘block’ notice would make the user ‘more aggressive’ and ‘do more harm’.

The case pertains to Twitter moving the HC in July seeking quashing of 39 ‘blocking orders’ issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) between February 2021 and February 2022.

The orders sought to take down 175 tweets and 1,400 accounts. In its plea, Twitter claimed that the government was directing the microblogging platform to block accounts without justifications.