India
Setback for Twitter as Karnataka HC dismisses petition challenging blocking, imposes Rs 50 lakh as cost | India News
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BENGALURU: In a huge setback for Twitter Inc, the US based multi-blogging platform, the Karnataka high court on Friday dismissed its petition as devoid of merit, by imposing exemplary cost of Rs 50 lakh, payable to Karnataka State Legal Services Authority within 45 days.
If delay is brooked, the petitioner has to pay an additional amount of Rs 5,000 per day, justice Krishna S Dixit said in his order.
Though the judge ruled in favour of the petitioner vis-a-vis maintainability of the petition, at the same time he pointed out that it had not given any reasons for the demand by the central government for blocking of certain accounts.
Twitter had challenged the series of blocking orders issued by the central government from February 2, 2021 till February 28, 2022.
In the detailed statement of objection filed on September 1, 2022 in response to Twitter’s petition, the central government had termed the petitioner to be “a habitual non-compliant who does not follow the law of the land”.
Through the blocking orders, the ministry of electronics and information technology had directed the petitioner to block for access by public certain information, which includes suspension of multiple accounts on Twitter.
In its petition, Twitter had claimed these orders are ‘arbitrary’ as they fail to provide prior notice to the originator of content.
The company has further stated that the blocking orders are ‘unconstitutional’ as they do not meet requirements under Section 69-A of the Information Technology Act.
According to the petitioner, 256 URLs and one hashtag were directed to be blocked as of February 2, 2021. Till date, a total of 1,474 accounts and 175 tweets were ordered to be blocked. In the present petition, Twitter has challenged the orders in respect of 39 URLs.
The petitioner claims that in a recent letter dated June 27, 2022, the Centre had directed the company to follow the blocking orders failing which they will face serious consequences — withdrawal of protection under Section 79(1) and initiation of criminal proceedings under the Information Technology Act.
The petitioner further stated it had complied with the orders under protest, but refused to block 11 accounts. In response, the Centre issued a fresh letter on July 1, 2022, revoking their decision to block 10
accounts.
Twitter had also sought for a directive to the authorities to either modify the blocking orders or identify specific tweets which flout Section 69A of IT Act.
If delay is brooked, the petitioner has to pay an additional amount of Rs 5,000 per day, justice Krishna S Dixit said in his order.
Though the judge ruled in favour of the petitioner vis-a-vis maintainability of the petition, at the same time he pointed out that it had not given any reasons for the demand by the central government for blocking of certain accounts.
Twitter had challenged the series of blocking orders issued by the central government from February 2, 2021 till February 28, 2022.
In the detailed statement of objection filed on September 1, 2022 in response to Twitter’s petition, the central government had termed the petitioner to be “a habitual non-compliant who does not follow the law of the land”.
Through the blocking orders, the ministry of electronics and information technology had directed the petitioner to block for access by public certain information, which includes suspension of multiple accounts on Twitter.
In its petition, Twitter had claimed these orders are ‘arbitrary’ as they fail to provide prior notice to the originator of content.
The company has further stated that the blocking orders are ‘unconstitutional’ as they do not meet requirements under Section 69-A of the Information Technology Act.
According to the petitioner, 256 URLs and one hashtag were directed to be blocked as of February 2, 2021. Till date, a total of 1,474 accounts and 175 tweets were ordered to be blocked. In the present petition, Twitter has challenged the orders in respect of 39 URLs.
The petitioner claims that in a recent letter dated June 27, 2022, the Centre had directed the company to follow the blocking orders failing which they will face serious consequences — withdrawal of protection under Section 79(1) and initiation of criminal proceedings under the Information Technology Act.
The petitioner further stated it had complied with the orders under protest, but refused to block 11 accounts. In response, the Centre issued a fresh letter on July 1, 2022, revoking their decision to block 10
accounts.
Twitter had also sought for a directive to the authorities to either modify the blocking orders or identify specific tweets which flout Section 69A of IT Act.
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