Twitter plea against the Indian government denied and fined 5 million rupees by High Court

This decision was made just weeks following Jack Dorsey’s (Twitter’s ex-CEO) accusation that India had threatened to shut down the social media platform within the country unless it adhered to directives to limit accounts expressing dissent towards an array of pressing issues.

The Karnataka High Court also emphasised that Twitter, being a foreign company, is not entitled to claim freedom of speech and personal freedom granted to citizens of India by the Constitution.

Under the provisions of the country’s IT act – The Information Technology Act, 2000 – the government has the authority to restrict public access to content for various reasons, including safeguarding national security. The US-based company was served multiple notices for breaching guidelines and delayed compliance with the country’s rules, India’s Deputy Minister for Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar posted on Twitter.

Twitter received a directive from the authorities to take action regarding its content, encompassing posts accused of disseminating false information about farmer protests, accounts endorsing the idea of an autonomous Sikh state, and tweets that criticised the government’s management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February 2021, India also updated its IT competencies through the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code, a set of provisions for the inclusion of a fact-checking unit aimed at detecting online content that is fake, false, or misleading in relation to the government – tightening the Modi government’s grip on internet expression.