Twitter moves Karnataka High Court

New Delhi: Twitter on Tuesday asked the Karnataka High Court to overturn some government orders to remove content from the social media platform, a source familiar with the matter said.

The US company's attempt to get a judicial review of the orders is part of a growing confrontation with the Union government. Twitter has been asked by MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) authorities 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 over tweets critical of the government's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Union IT Ministry did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a request for comment about Twitter's legal move.

The Union government has previously said that big social media firms, including Twitter, have not complied with removal requests, despite their legal standing. Late last month, Twitter was warned by the Union IT Ministry of criminal proceedings if it did not comply with some orders. Twitter complied this week, the source said, so as not to lose liability exemptions available as a host of content. In a filing with the Karnataka High Court, Twitter argued that some removal orders fell short of the procedural requirements of India's IT Act, the source said, without specifying which ones it wanted reviewed.

The IT Act allows the government to block public access to content in the interest of national security, among other reasons.

The company has argued that the orders are procedurally and substantially deficient of the Section 69A requirements and that they demonstrate excessive use of powers and are disproportionate. It argued that in several cases, there are demands for entire accounts to be blocked.

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 authors of the content. It says that some were related to political content posted by official handles of political parties, the blocking of which amount to violation of freedom of speech, the source added.

Tensions with the Union government flared early last year when Twitter declined to fully comply with an order to take down accounts and posts which New Delhi alleged were spreading misinformation about anti-government protests by farmers. The company has also been subject to police investigations in India and last year many government ministers moved to domestically developed platform Koo, accusing Twitter of non-compliance with local laws.

Twitter has also faced a backlash in India for blocking accounts of influential individuals, including politicians, citing violations of its policies.

In April, the Centre issued emergency blocking orders to takedown over 100 "inflammatory" posts and accounts across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.