Musk's X petition alleges censorship by Modi govt without appeal option

Bengaluru: Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, has moved the Karnataka High Court alleging that the Union government is resorting to an unlawful information-blocking regime without any protections or opportunity of hearing.

In its petition, X stated that the Centre has tried to circumvent the protections under the Information Technology (IT) Act and the Blocking Rules which have been upheld by the Apex Court in Shreya Singhal case in 2015.

The petition, listed on March 17, could not be heard due to paucity of time and has been posted to March 27.

On October 31, 2023, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had directed central ministries, state governments, states’ deputy generals of police, and local police officers that they are authorised to issue information-blocking orders under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act.

In that case, the Supreme court had held that section 69A is the only procedure to issue blocking orders because it is “a narrowly drawn provision with several safeguards”.

X’s petition said the Centre must comply with safeguards of section 69A and Blocking Rules to block information affecting the “sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State”.

But it can now block any “unlawful” information under any law in force pursuant to Section 79(3)(b) without any safeguards whatsoever.

“As a result of MeitY’s directive, the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Railways and countless state government agencies have issued “notifications” purporting to empower their officers to issue information blocking orders under Section 79(3)(b ), in circumvention of the Section 69A process,” the petition said.

‘X is at imminent risk’

The petition comes at a time when Meity is examining X’s AI model Grok over its use of abusive remarks and controversial comments against senior politicians.

According to news agency ANI, Meity has not sent any notice to Grok or X. MeitY officials are interacting with the officials of X and examining at what stage it specifically violated and which Indian law has been violated.

In its petition, X contended that it is at imminent risk as the Ministry of Railways recently issued information-blocking orders under Section 79(3)(b) for hundreds of posts, seeking to censor commentary, videos, news articles, news footage and press reports about matters of public interest.

“Such information could not have been the subject matter of Section 69A, and only to circumvent that law, the Ministry of Railways has impermissibly invoked Section 79(3Xb),” the petition said.

The petitioner stated that on October 9, 2024, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had created a Censorship Portal (Sahyog) to allow central, state agencies and local police officers to issue information-blocking orders. The petitioner said MHA also sent a letter to it demanding that it appoint a ‘Nodal Officer’ to ensure compliance with the blocking orders that will be issued through the portal.

The petition has sought a direction to the authorities to restrain them from taking coercive or prejudicial action against X Corp, its representatives, employees or officers, for not joining the Sahyog portal.