Karnataka HC Dismisses Twitter's Plea Against Centre's Takedown Order, Imposes Rs 50 Lakh Fine

The Karnataka High Court today (Friday, 30 June) dismissed Twitter's plea challenging erstwhile directions of the Centre, which directed Twitter to remove some tweets and accounts.

The court also condemned Twitter's conduct while ruling against its plea and imposed a Rs 50 lakh fine on the social media giant. Additionally, Twitter's request to stay the operation of the order was refused.

On 4 July, last year, the government sent a letter to Twitter, asking it to comply with the orders by that date, warning that failure to do so would result in the loss of its legal shield as an intermediary.

If the legal shield were lost, Twitter executives could face fines and imprisonment for up to seven years in cases where users violated IT laws.

Twitter had decided to challenge some of the blocking orders in court as response. The company had argued that these orders were arbitrary and violated freedom of speech and expression.

In April this year, the High Court questioned the central government about the lack of reasons provided for blocking certain Twitter accounts, considering the takedown orders issued the previous year.

The Centre argued that Twitter, being a foreign entity, could not claim the enforcement of fundamental rights. Twitter objected to this and informed the court that it was invoking the writ jurisdiction due to a violation of protocols prescribed under Section 69A of the IT Act.

Additionally, Twitter claimed in a rejoinder to the court that foreign entities also had rights under Article 14.

The court then requested both Twitter and the union government to clarify how Indian entities would be treated in the United States and other foreign jurisdictions regarding such issues. The hearing was adjourned for two days to allow time for this clarification.

This comes when Twitter's ex-CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey recently accused India of threatening to shut down the social media platform in the country, unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts critical of the handling of farmer protests in 2021, a charge which the government called a "lie."

Minister of State for Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, tweeted that the court ruled in favour of the Centre, citing how Twitter had been served notices, but failed to comply with them.

The Minister also shared that the bench expressed their dissatisfaction with Twitter's delayed compliance, questioning why it took them over a year to comply without providing any reasons.

Quoting the bench, he emphasised that "Twitter is not a farmer but a billion-dollar company".

Twitter has stated that the government had to issue notice to the owners of the Twitter handles who were subject to blocking orders. Twitter claimed that it was prohibited from informing the account holders about the government's takedown orders.

The HC's ruling against Twitter for non-compliance comes even as Elon Musk, the current chairman of Twitter, had expressed that Twitter would have no option but to obey the law of the land, when enquired regarding Jack Dorsey's statement regarding coercion from the Indian government.