Karnataka HC reserves order on Twitter’s plea against Centre’s order to block account

Bengaluru (IANS) | The Karnataka High Court on Friday reserved its order on a plea by social media platform Twitter challenging the Centre’s directive to remove 39 URLs. The case pertains to 10 blocking orders issued to Twitter between February 2021 and February 2022, directing the social media platform to block public access to certain information and suspend several accounts.

Justice Krishna S. Dixit reserved the order after hearing the arguments of Twitter and the central government.

Twitter challenged the government orders, claiming they were arbitrary, and procedurally and factually not in consonance with Section 69A of the IT Act. Twitter also argued that blocking the account would violate the constitutional rights of users.

Apart from terming the order to block the account as a violation of Section 69A of the IT Act, Twitter claimed that the government orders did not comply with the 2009 Blocking Rules.

The Center in its reply said that these orders were issued in the national and public interest. Their aim was to prevent incidents of lynching and mob violence.

The central government had said that it intervenes only when there is a threat to the sovereignty of the country or public order. It argued that the company is a foreign entity and the 10 orders of the government are not arbitrary. Therefore Twitter cannot take refuge in the fundamental rights under Article 14 (right to equality) and Article 19 (right to freedom of speech and expression) of the Indian Constitution.

Stating that Twitter has no jurisdiction to support users, the Center argued that Twitter also has no jurisdiction to file the petition as it cannot speak on behalf of its account holders.

–IANS