{"id":39542,"date":"2025-03-21T20:23:20","date_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:53:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=39542"},"modified":"2025-03-21T20:23:21","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T14:53:21","slug":"x-corp-challenges-government-content-blocking-orders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/21-03-2025\/x-corp-challenges-government-content-blocking-orders","title":{"rendered":"X Corp. Challenges Content Blocking Orders of Government\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/Polity and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>X Corp, formerly known as Twitter Inc., is challenging the Indian government&#8217;s approach to <strong>content blocking on its platform<\/strong>, particularly in relation to the <strong>Sahyog portal.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>At the heart of the issue is the<strong> invocation of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, <\/strong>which X Corp believes is being used inappropriately to issue content-blocking orders.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Sahyog Portal:<\/strong> It was launched by<strong> the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2024<\/strong>.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The portal acts as a <strong>centralized system<\/strong> for government agencies at <strong>various levels<\/strong>\u2014ranging from ministries to local police stations\u2014to issue blocking orders more efficiently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>X Corp has asked the Karnataka High Court to intervene and ensure that <strong>content blocking can only occur under Section 69A.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This legal battle is part of a <strong>broader tension between social media platforms and governments worldwide<\/strong> over the regulation of online content and the <strong>balance between freedom of expression and national security concerns.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Legal Framework: Section 69A vs. Section 79(3)(b)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000:<\/strong> This section empowers the government to <strong>block public access to content<\/strong> on the internet <strong>in certain circumstances, such as <\/strong>concerns over national security, sovereignty, public order, or to prevent incitement.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"a9a8a8\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"760\" height=\"466\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/03\/x-leagal-challenge-1.png\" alt=\"x-leagal-challenge\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-39544\" style=\"--dominant-color: #a9a8a8; width:400px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/03\/x-leagal-challenge-1.png 760w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/03\/x-leagal-challenge-1-300x184.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It includes safeguards as laid out by the <strong>Supreme Court in the Shreya Singhal case (2015).\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A reasoned order explaining the necessity of blocking content.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The person or entity affected should have a<strong> chance to contest the order.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act: <\/strong>This section deals with the <strong>liability of intermediaries (such as platforms like X Corp) for third-party content.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It exempts platforms from<strong> liability for illegal content<\/strong> unless they fail to act <strong>swiftly to remove or disable access<\/strong> to that content when notified by the government.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>X Corp argues that this provision<strong> should not be used to directly block content<\/strong>, as it is not intended for that purpose.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Implications &amp; Way Forward<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Rising State Regulation: <\/strong>The case underscores the growing trend of government intervention and regulation over online content in India.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Digital Rights at Risk:<\/strong> Lack of transparency in content moderation and takedown processes can undermine users&#8217; fundamental digital rights and freedoms.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Freedom vs. Security Dilemma: <\/strong>Striking a balance between safeguarding national security and ensuring freedom of expression remains a persistent governance challenge.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/technology\/elon-musks-x-sues-union-government-over-alleged-censorship-and-it-act-violations\/article69352961.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>X Corp, formerly known as Twitter Inc., is challenging the Indian government&#8217;s approach to content blocking on its platform, particularly in relation to the Sahyog portal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39545,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39542\/revisions\/39545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}