Twitter has sued the Indian government over some of its content takedown and account blocking orders. The lawsuit escalates the tension between the social media company and the Indian government, which threatened legal action if Twitter does not comply with the orders.
On Tuesday, Twitter filed a complaint with the Karnataka High Court accusing the Indian government of abusing its powers by disproportionately and arbitrarily ordering it to remove tweets and accounts, according to a source for TechCrunch.
Since the Indian government started enforcing the New It Rules in June 2021, there have been multiple scuffles between Twitter and the government, which has sent multiple takedown notices for content and accounts. According to critics, most of these tweets and accounts rubbed New Delhi the wrong way because of criticizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government’s policies.
Twitter moved to court after New Delhi threatened to take legal action against its chief compliance officer last week, if it does not comply with the takedown notices by Monday, July 4.
Perhaps the height of the Twitter vs India fight was last year in May when the police visited Twitter’s offices in New Delhi and Gurgaon seeking to know why Twitter flagged a tweet by the spokesperson of the ruling party BJP as “manipulated media.” Twitter described the incident as “intimidation.”
