Railways order to X for video removal a case of misuse: Govt

The Union government on Tuesday admitted in the Karnataka high court that the Indian Railways misused its statutory powers when it issued a takedown notice to social media platform X over a video showing a woman driving on railway tracks in Telangana.

- Ayesha Arvind

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, dismissed it as an “isolated incident” that did not undermine the Sahyog portal’s overall objective of streamlining regulation of online intermediaries.

The comments were made during arguments over X Corp's petition challenging the government's Sahyog Portal, which the social media platform claims opens doors for “indiscriminate censorship” by allowing countless government officials to issue takedown notices without proper oversight. “Misuse of a provision does not render it unconstitutional,” Mehta told a bench of justice M Nagaprasanna.