Union Minister of State Rajeev Chandrasekhar, after the Karnataka High Court dismissed a petition filed by Twitter and imposed a fine of ₹50 lakh on the social media giant, on Friday said that all platforms had to be in compliance with the Indian law adding that Twitter under former CEO Jack Dorsey refused to comply.
Mentioning the judgement, Chandrasekhar said in a tweet, “In response to @GoI_MeitY’s [Ministry of Electronics and IT’s] notice for non-compliance they approached Karnataka High Court n judgement: Karnataka High Court has dismissed the petition filed by @Twitter, challenging the blocking orders issued to it by @GoI_MeitY u/s.69(A) of IT Act 2000.”
Twitter had challenged ten blocking orders which were issued by the Indian government which directed Twitter to take down 39 links between February 2021 and 2022.
Chandrasekhar added, “Court imposed cost of Rs. 50 lakh on the microblogging platform, citing its conduct. It also refused Twitter’s request to stay the operation of the order.”
Justice Krishna S Dixit had said the fine was imposed since Twitter did not give any reasoning for not complying with Central government’s orders. The court said that Twitter was to pay the fine within 45 days or pay ₹5,000 for every day the fine was delayed.
Speaking to news agency PTI, Chandrasekhar said, “Our relationship with (social media) platforms isn’t adversarial. Our insistence is that law must be followed. I am glad that the court has today laid down that non-compliance isn’t an option. All platforms in India have to comply with Indian law.”
Chandrasekhar further quoted the bench, which said during the hearing, “Your client [Twitter] was given notices and your client did not comply. Punishment for non-compliance is 7 years imprisonment and unlimited fine. That also did not deter your client. So you have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay…then all of sudden you comply and approach the Court. You are not a farmer but a billon dollar company.”
During the hearing Dixit clearly stated that as per the Central government’s stance, it was clear that it did not only hold the power to block tweets but also accounts.
The court also said that Central government could not issue general orders to block accounts, specific reasons should be provided to the users. It also said blocking order could only be issued when content was on grounds mentioned in Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
As mentioned by Bar and Bench, since Twitter was a foreign entity and the government’s orders were not arbitrary, the social media giant could not fall back on right to equality (Article 14) and right to freedom of speech and expression (Article 19).
Out of 1,474 accounts and 175 tweets, ordered to be blocked by the Central government, Twitter was only opposing 39 URLs.
The court heard the matter extensively until April 21 and reserved its verdict.
Jack Dorsey on Indian Government’s requests to Twitter
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, in a stunning allegation, claimed that the company had received “many requests” from India to block accounts covering farmers’ protests and those critical of the government.
During an interview, when asked if he had faced any pressure from foreign governments, Dorsey, who stepped down from Twitter’s board last year, replied, “India for example, India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers protests, around particular journalists which were critical of the government, and it manifested in ways such as ‘we will shut Twitter down in India’… ‘we would raid the homes of your employees’, which they did; ‘we will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit’. And this is India, a democratic country.”
