Elon Musk’s social platform X has filed a petition against the Indian government in the Karnataka High Court. It states that Indian government officials are blocking content, which is a misuse of Section 79(3)(B) of the IT Act.
The petition states that this method of censorship is completely illegal and a violation of the right to expression.The social media company says that if the content starts getting removed so easily, they will lose the trust of the users, which will affect the company’s business.
X Corp has argued that the Act does not give the government the power to remove content, but authorities are using it in place of Section 69(A). The social media company alleged that the government blocks content through a portal called ‘Sahyog’. The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center operates this portal. On the instructions of the Home Ministry, the police and government departments give orders to remove content.
X claims that government officials in India are bypassing proper legal processes and creating an illegal system to block online content. X has said that the Sahyog portal is acting like a ‘censorship portal’ and hence cannot be considered a step taken in accordance with the rules.