Microblogging platform X is set to challenge a Karnataka High Court ruling, which upheld the operation of the Union home ministry’s Sahyog portal that allows police to issue takedown orders to digital outlets.
The company’s Global Government Affairs handle posted on Monday: “X is deeply concerned by the recent order from the Karnataka court in India, which will allow millions of police officers to issue arbitrary takedown orders through a secretive online portal called the Sahyog. This new regime has no basis in the law, circumvents Section 69A of the IT Act, violates Supreme Court rulings, and infringes Indian citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression.
“Sahyog enables officers to order content removal based solely on allegations of ‘illegality’, without judicial review or due process for the speakers, and threatens platforms with criminal liability for non-compliance.
“X respects and complies with Indian law, but this order fails to address the core constitutional issues in our challenge and is inconsistent with the Bombay High Court’s recent ruling that a similar regime was unconstitutional. We respectfully disagree with the view that we have no right to raise these concerns because of our incorporation abroad — X contributes significantly to public discourse in India and the voice of our users is at the heart of our platform. We will appeal this order to defend free expression,” X said.
X’s public comment on the matter is significant in light of regime-changing protests in Nepal that were triggered by a ban on social media platforms that refused to comply with a new regulatory mechanism.
In May, X’s Global Government Affairs handle was briefly blocked in India after it revealed the Centre’s blocking of some 8,000 X handles during Operation Sindoor. Last week, Karnataka High Court rejected X’s appeal against Sahyog — a decision hailed by the Centre. X is the only major digital platform company which is not linked to Sahyog yet.
In 2023, Twitter (which was later renamed X after Tesla CEO Elon Musk bought it) was fined $61,000 by Karnataka High Court for refusing to comply with takedown requests on anti-government posts. After a meeting in the US with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Musk stated that the firm would have to comply with local laws or shut down.
US think tank Freedom House’s “Freedom on the Net” index of last year rates India
at 50 per cent in the “Partly Free” category.
