Twitter is suing the Indian government. Yes, you heard right. The suit, filed by Twitter in the Karnataka High Court yesterday, seeks to challenge the government's order to remove content on the platform.
Twitter sues Indian government to order content removal
As Reuters first reported, the lawsuit alleges abuse of power by government officials to remove content shared on Twitter. According to the report, the posts removed over the past year include sensitive topics such as tweets seeking an independent Sikh state, alleged misinformation about peasant protests and tweets criticizing the government's handling of the pandemic.
The posts must also contain political content that is shared by the official handles of political parties. "Blocking such information is a violation of the freedom of expression guaranteed to citizen-users of the platform. Furthermore, the content in question does not have an obvious proximate relationship to the grounds under Section 69A," Twitter said in the lawsuit.
In response to the lawsuit, India's IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said companies should follow India's laws. "Whether it is any company, in any sector, they should follow the laws of India," IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw was quoted as saying by ANI.
