News Brief
Elon Musk's 'X' Files Lawsuit Against Indian Government, Claims IT Act Misused To Create ‘Parallel’ Censorship
The X headquarters as seen on the night of 24 July 2023, posted by Elon Musk on his X account.
Billionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform X has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government, contesting what it calls a “parallel” and “unlawful” censorship regime imposed through the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, reported The Indian Express.
The legal challenge, filed in the Karnataka High Court earlier this month, takes issue with the use of Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, arguing that it is being misused to bypass procedural safeguards and expand the government’s power over online content removal.
X has contended that multiple government departments and agencies are now issuing takedown notices to social media platforms under Section 79(3)(b), instead of following the established procedure under Section 69A of the IT Act, which is the primary provision allowing content blocking.
This, the company argues, violates the Supreme Court’s landmark 2015 Shreya Singhal judgment, which held that content could only be censored either by a court order or under Section 69A.
The petition states that 23 years after Section 79 was enacted, and 14 years after its current version came into effect, the government is now misusing it to create an ‘unlawful blocking regime’ without any of the safeguards provided under Section 69A.
X has also refused to onboard an employee onto Sahyog, a portal created by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) for managing censorship orders under Section 79(3)(b). The company has alleged in its petition that Sahyog is a ‘Censorship Portal’, designed to force compliance with arbitrary takedown orders.
This is not the first time X has taken legal action against India’s online censorship policies. In 2022, when the platform was still known as Twitter, it had challenged content blocking orders under Section 69A, accusing officials of disproportionate use of power.
However, in 2023, the court dismissed Twitter’s plea, ruling that the company had failed to comply with government directives before seeking legal recourse.
Under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, online platforms such as X risk losing their ‘safe harbour’ protections—legal immunity that shields them from liability for user-generated content—if they fail to block flagged content.
However, X has argued that the IT Ministry has effectively authorised thousands of officials, including those from central ministries, state governments, and local police, to issue content takedown orders outside the Section 69A framework.
