ETtechTwitter Indian on Monday told the Karnataka High Court that the central government’s order on blocking accounts from the platform would amount to a violation of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed to Indian citizens under Article 19 A.
The high court was hearing a petition moved by Twitter challenging the take-down orders issued by the central government between February 2021 and June 2022.
Arguing that while television and print media was allowed to showcase the events that were happening during the farmer-led protests that happened in and around New Delhi and the National Capital Region during January 2021, Twitter was asked to block accounts which were tweeting news regarding it.
The counsel for Twitter also told the Karnataka High Court that there were no provisions under section 69 of the Information Technology Act which allowed wholesale blocking of accounts and that such order could only be applied to tweets.
The high court will continue hearing the case on October 17.
In July, Twitter had moved the Karnataka High Court challenging the blocking order passed by the central government. In its petition, Twitter had said that 39 blocking orders issued by the centre, including some, sent as far back as February 2021 did not pass the proportionality test.
In all, the Ministry of Electronics, and Information Technology (MeitY) had ordered the social media intermediary to block 1,474 accounts, 256 uniform resource locators (URLs), 175 tweets and one hashtag in the period between February 2, 2021, and February 28, 2022, Twitter had then told the high court in its affidavit.
The intermediary has also contended that the blocking orders issued by the IT ministry are “manifestly arbitrary, and procedurally and substantially not in consonance” with Section 69A of the IT Act.
Noting that the “remit of section 69A extends only to blocking ‘information’ that is already available and does not extend to preventing information from being generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted,” Twitter in its submission to the court stated that the IT ministry’s “account level” blocking orders were, therefore, a violation of the IT Act.”
The high court was hearing a petition moved by Twitter challenging the take-down orders issued by the central government between February 2021 and June 2022.
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The counsel for Twitter also told the Karnataka High Court that there were no provisions under section 69 of the Information Technology Act which allowed wholesale blocking of accounts and that such order could only be applied to tweets.
The high court will continue hearing the case on October 17.
In July, Twitter had moved the Karnataka High Court challenging the blocking order passed by the central government. In its petition, Twitter had said that 39 blocking orders issued by the centre, including some, sent as far back as February 2021 did not pass the proportionality test.
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In all, the Ministry of Electronics, and Information Technology (MeitY) had ordered the social media intermediary to block 1,474 accounts, 256 uniform resource locators (URLs), 175 tweets and one hashtag in the period between February 2, 2021, and February 28, 2022, Twitter had then told the high court in its affidavit.
The intermediary has also contended that the blocking orders issued by the IT ministry are “manifestly arbitrary, and procedurally and substantially not in consonance” with Section 69A of the IT Act.
Noting that the “remit of section 69A extends only to blocking ‘information’ that is already available and does not extend to preventing information from being generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted,” Twitter in its submission to the court stated that the IT ministry’s “account level” blocking orders were, therefore, a violation of the IT Act.”
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