Social media platform X is seeking to quash an Indian court ruling that it was not compliant with Indian government orders to remove content, arguing it could embolden New Delhi to block more content and broaden the scope for censorship.

X, formerly known as Twitter, in July 2022 sought to overturn government orders to remove some content from its platform. A court in June 2023 quashed that request and imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh ($60,560).

X has now appealed against that decision at the Karnataka High Court, arguing in a 96-page filing that the government “will be emboldened to issue more blocking orders” that violate the law. A single-judge bench of the high court had given the initial verdict.

The filing, which was dated August 1 but has not been posted publicly, was submitted by local law firm Poovayya & Co at the Karnataka High Court.

The original lawsuit predates X’s ownership by billionaire Elon Musk, who is also pursuing several business enterprises in India.

The Tesla chief executive is discussing an investment proposal to set up a factory there making electric vehicles and is seeking market entry for his satellite broadband firm SpaceX.

X said in the filing there must be “discernible parameters” on what mandates the blocking of an entire account instead of a specific post. Otherwise, the government’s “power to censor future content is untrammelled”.

Court hearings are typically held within several days after a filing is submitted.

The company in previous years has been asked by Indian authorities to act on content including accounts deemed supportive of Khalistan, posts alleged to have spread misinformation about protests by farmers, and tweets critical of the government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key issue

X’s main contention was that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) had issued blocking orders under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act without issuing notice to the account holders, adds PTI.

The single judge bench had framed eight questions and only the question of locus standi for filing the petition was answered in favour of Twitter.

X had claimed that the government had between February 2, 2021 and February 28, 2022, issued 10 Government orders directing it to block 1,474 accounts, 175 tweets, 256 URLs and one hashtag. Twitter challenged the orders related to 39 of these URLs. Reuters With inputs from PTI