Twitter Moves Court Against Modi Govt Orders To Block Content: Report

Twitter on Tuesday moved the court against the Indian government's orders of blocking content on the micro-blogging platform, media reports say.

Twitter's attempt to get a judicial review is part of a growing confrontation with the government. Image: Getty

Twitter on Tuesday moved the court against the Indian government's orders of blocking content on the micro-blogging platform, the media has reported. The micro-blogging platform's attempt to get a judicial review is part of a growing confrontation with the government, says a report by news agency Reuters.

The government has asked Twitter over the past year to act on content including accounts supportive of an independent Sikh state, posts alleged to have spread misinformation about protests by farmers and also over tweets critical of the central government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The government had late last month cautioned Twitter of criminal proceedings if the company did not comply with some orders.

Twitter complied this week, the Reuters report added, citing a source, so as not to lose liability exemptions available as a host of content in the country.

The micro-blogging platform has moved the Karnataka High Court on the grounds that the content blocking directives from the IT Ministry does not pass "the test of the grounds provided under Section 69A of the IT Act", news agency IANS reported quoting sources.

The country's IT act allows the government to block public access to content in the interest of national security, among other reasons. Twitter, which market research firms say has nearly 24 million users in India, also argues in its filing that some of the orders failed to give notice to the authors of the content. The IT Ministry was yet to react to Twitter's move.