The Karnataka High Court on Friday reserved orders on a petition filed by Twitter challenging the Centre’s orders to remove 39 URLs between February 2021 and February 2022.
After hearing Twitter and the central government, the single bench of Justice Krishna S. Dixit reserved this decision.
Senior Advocates Ashok Haranahalli and Arvind Datar, representing Twitter, argued that account-level blocking is a disproportionate measure that violates users’ constitutional rights.
Twitter challenged the blocking of only 39 URLs out of 1,474 accounts and 175 tweets.
According to the petition, the orders in question are manifestly arbitrary and, both procedurally and substantively, violate Section 69A of the IT Act.
Furthermore, they fail to follow the procedures and safeguards outlined in the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Public Access to Information) Rules, 2009 (Blocking Rules), which were submitted.
Twitter also claimed that the order to block entire accounts violated Section 69A of the IT Act.
Responding on behalf of the Central Government, Additional Solicitor General of India R Sankaranarayanan stated that the orders to block certain Twitter accounts were issued in the national and public interest, as well as to prevent lynchings and mob violence.
The government emphasized that it is committed to providing its citizens with an open, safe, trusted, and accountable internet, and that its powers to block information are limited.
