X Says Indian Online Takedown Platform Threatens Free Speech

Bengaluru, India: Social media giant X warned on Monday that an Indian court allowed ruling police to issue“arbitrary” content removal orders through a government portal threatens free expression.

The state high court in Karnataka -- which includes tech-city Bengaluru -- dismissed a plea last week filed by X against the government portal that it alleged was being used to censor content.

The government says its online portal Sahyog -- meaning "cooperate" in Hindi -- helps automate the process of sending government notices to content intermediaries such as X and Facebook.

“It aims to create a safe cyber space for the citizens of India by facilitating the removal or disabling of access to any unlawful online information,” it says.

It will "allow millions of police officers to issue arbitrary takedown orders", and "infringes Indian citizens' constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression", X added.

The Karnataka high court said last week that X's plea was "without merit" and that social media was not exempt from regulation.

“Unregulated speech, under the guise of liberty, becomes a license for lawlessness,” the order read.

The court said that while X followed takedown orders in the United States, it had refused to follow similar orders in India. X said it would appeal the ruling.

In 2023, the Karnataka state high court fined X, then called Twitter, $61,000 after dismissing its plea challenging orders to remove critical comments and accounts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

Rights groups say freedom of expression is under broad threat in India, which is now at 151 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index.

India has more than 900 million internet users, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

China has more internet users, but India is open to US tech companies.

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