Image Courtesy: economictimes.indiatimes.com
Twitter has moved the Karnataka High Court alleging that it is being virtually arm-twisted into taking down accounts without being given adequate reason to do so by the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY).
Last month, MeitY had instructed Twitter to comply with its orders to block certain accounts by July 4, or lose safe harbour protection under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethic Code) Rules, 2021, reported the Indian Express.
In the past year alone, MeitY has reportedly issued 10 blocking orders to Twitter, ordering them to take down over 1,400 accounts and 175 tweets under Section 69 A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, allows the Centre to issue directions for blocking of social media content “in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence relating to above.”
Twitter has now filed a petition to the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday, July 5, 2022, seeking that the blocking orders be set aside as they “fall foul” of the “narrowly tailored” grounds of Section 69A of the IT Act. In the petition, Twitter reportedly alleged disproportionate use of power by officials issuing orders under Section 69A of the IT Act.
Twitter alleges that the Ministry ordered them to block entire accounts, without even informing the company about the specific tweets that were made by the accounts that called for their blocking, reported the Indian Express. The company reportedly stated, “Several of the URLs contain political and journalistic content. Blocking of such information is a gross violation of the freedom of speech guaranteed to citizen-users of the platform.” It further stated that the Ministry failed to provide “proper reasons” for issuing the blocking orders as required under Section 69A of the IT Act.
While calling some of the blocking orders “unconstitutional”, the company has said: “The blocking orders are challenged on the basis that they are procedurally and substantially non-compliant with Section 69A, are manifestly arbitrary, fail to provide the originators prior notice and are disproportionate in several cases,” reported the Indian Express.
As per reports, the accounts and tweets that were ordered to be blocked have been submitted to the court by Twitter in a sealed envelope, since Section 69 (A) orders are supposed to be kept confidential.
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