Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: June 6, 2022 at 18:14 IST
Twitter has moved the judiciary in response to government’s ire for failing to act as per orders of content takedown. Twitter filed a plea against the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s (MEITY) orders to suspend tweets and accounts before the Karnataka High Court.
MEITY had raised concerns about repeated cases of Twitter’s alleged inaction with regard to takedown orders in a sharply worded notice to twitter on June 27. According to the notice, Twitter was given a deadline of July 4 to comply with takedown orders or risk losing its protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.
Social media companies are protected under Section 79 of the IT Act because it protects them from being held liable for content put up by the users. An intermediary is not responsible for any data, information, or communication links made available or hosted by him to third parties, according to this provision.
Local mobile carriers and Twitter are challenging India’s rules governing content takedowns on the grounds that they are technically infeasible and restrict free speech.
According to Indian media reports, the microblogging service is facing a legal threat after a lawsuit was filed to contest recent government requests to remove some tweets.