Elon Musk’s social media platform X has launched a legal challenge against the Indian government, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration of unlawfully broadening its censorship powers.
The lawsuit contends that India’s Ministry of Information Technology (IT) has expanded its authority to remove online content without adhering to stringent legal safeguards, allowing government officials to execute takedown orders with little oversight.
This latest legal battle intensifies the ongoing friction between X and the Modi government over digital censorship.
At the heart of the matter is a new mechanism facilitated by a government website introduced last year by India’s Ministry of Home Affairs. According to X, the IT Ministry is instructing various departments to use this platform to issue content-blocking orders while simultaneously mandating social media companies to comply by joining the system.
The lawsuit argues that this method bypasses India’s existing legal framework, which mandates that content removals be justified under specific conditions such as threats to sovereignty or public order and be subjected to oversight by high-ranking officials.
X asserts that this new system creates “an impermissible parallel mechanism” that fosters “unrestrained censorship of information in India.” The company has petitioned the court to annul the directive, emphasizing the potential dangers of unchecked government control over online expression.
While India’s IT Ministry redirected media inquiries to the Home Affairs Ministry, no response has been provided.
The case was briefly presented before a judge in Karnataka’s High Court earlier this week, but a final verdict was not reached. The court is scheduled to hear the matter again on March 27.
This is not the first time X has clashed with the Indian government over content moderation. In 2021, when the platform was still operating as Twitter, it resisted government demands to block tweets related to farmers’ protests against agricultural policies. Despite initial defiance, X eventually complied following public pressure from officials, though it has continued to contest the directive in Indian courts.
