Elon Musk’s ‘X’files Lawsuit against Government of India

Tech-billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X has on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Government of India in the High Court of Indian province of Karnataka, alleging censorship and IT Act violation.

India has in place the Information Technology Act 2000, which had been further amended in 2008 to make it Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008.

Under Section 69A of the IT Act, Indian Government has the power to block public access to digital content if it is deemed a threat to national security, sovereignty, or public order. However, this act of blocking the content is regulated by 2009 IT (Procedure and Safeguard for Blocking Access of Information) Rules, under which a review is required by a court before an order is passed to block the content.

But, the Government, according to the lawsuit of ‘X’, is using Section 79(3)(b) as a short-cut to pass order to block contents bypassing the required procedure given by the Act, an action X calls arbitrary.

India, the most populated country of the world, has a large user-base of Musk’s X and the judgment on its lawsuit would be a landmark judgment that would be eagerly awaited.