X Can't Challenge Removal of User Content, Centre Informs K'taka HC

The Union government has told the Karnataka high court that social media platform X has no legal right to challenge the removal of user content, warning that any resistance to takedown orders could result in the platform losing its immunity from legal consequences under Indian law.

- Ayesha Arvind

BENGALURU:

In a strongly worded submission, the Centre asserted that under the Indian legal framework, intermediaries like X do not have the right to solicit hosting or oppose the removal of content before a court of law and that any resistance from X to comply with such orders would result in the withdrawal of the "safe harbour" protection that shields it from legal liability for content posted by its users.

"The intermediary as per the scheme of the Information Technology (IT) Act has no right or locus, at all, to take up the case of its users against any orders passed by the competent authority under section 79 of the Act or else it loses its safe harbour protection," it said in its affidavit.

It also accused X of adopting "double standards" by choosing to legally contest content takedown requests in India by government authorities, while simultaneously removing content voluntarily under its own internal policies.

The government's caution comes in response to a petition by X challenging the Indian government's invocation of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The company has argued that the provision creates an illegal parallel content-blocking process and is in violation of the Supreme Court's 2015 judgment in the Shreya Singhal case, which held that content can only be blocked through a court order or under the structured process outlined in Section 69A of the IT Act.