Karnataka HC junks Twitter's plea against government's account blocking orders, slaps Rs 50 lakh fine

Karnataka HC, twitter

The Karnataka High Court on June 30 dismissed Twitter's plea challenging the government’s order to block some accounts, saying the Elon Musk-owned company’s petition was devoid of merit.

Justice Krishna Dixit also imposed a penalty of Rs 50 lakh on the micro-blogging site for filing the plea. The amount is to be paid in 45 days to the Karnataka Legal Services Authority. A delay in payment would attract an additional penalty of Rs 5,000 a day for every day the payment is delayed beyond 45 days.

The HC has held that it agrees with the government's contention that it has the power to block both tweets and accounts. The court furthermore held that it had framed eight questions on law and facts to come to its conclusion against twitter. The HC also noted that it relied on several Indian as well as foreign judgments on the powers of the government to block content on the internet.  Justice Dixit noted that the court has also considered whether or not reason for blocking an account should be communicated to the user.

Justice Dixit mentioned in the court that twitter is not a layman to contend it had not complied with the government directives as it was not aware of the law, but it is a billion dollar tech company.

The case was being closely tracked for what some say was a challenge to the freedom of expression, as it also highlighted the social media firm's prickly relationship with the government, especially when it was owned by Jack Dorsey.  Musk bought Twitter in October.

Twitter had moved the High Court saying the government's blocking orders did not explain how the content violated the information technology act. The government argued that it shared the requisite information and justification on the account blocking orders with Twitter.

In June 2022,  the government sent notices to Twitter regarding non-compliance of its blocking orders. The government warned Twitter that further non-compliance would result in the removal of safe harbour immunity under Sec 79(1) of the IT Act.

Safe harbour provision grants protection to social media intermediaries such as twitter and facebook from being prosecuted for the content posted in their platform. If removed, the intermediary will be held liable for content posted in the platform.

The blocking orders in Twitter’s petition were issued by the government between February 2021 and February 2022.

Under Section 69A, the Union government, represented by MeitY, or any other specially authorised official, can issue blocking orders to platforms like Twitter on grounds such as the interest of the sovereignty, security of the state, and so on.

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