The Central government on Monday submitted its arguments against the solicitation challenging the blocking orders filed by Twitter in the Karnataka High Court. fresh Solicitor General R Sankaranarayanan placed the arguments before the single judge bench of Justice Krishna S Dixit. The arguments for the Central government was delayed due to time sought by the Centre’s counsels. The ASG informed the court on Monday that Twitter hadn’t appeared before the Review Committee to challenge the blocking orders but rather approached the High Court.
The Central government submitted details of the liabilities of interposers like Twitter and the difference between the laws regarding interposers in India and the United Kingdom. The court was also given details of the account holders whose Twitter handles were blocked for reprehensible content. The format of the notices issued to Twitter was also submitted to the court. The ASG sought time to present further analysis and details following which the court suspended the hail to March 26. The solicitation was filed by Twitter in June 2022 against the take-down orders issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The social media company has claimed that the government needed to issue notice to the possessors of the Twitter handles against whom blocking orders are issued.
Twitter had said that it was barred from informing the account holders about the takedown orders of the government. Meanwhile, it’s also material to note that the Indian government’s increased alert over social media, OTT, and other digital platforms has formally entered severe review from legal experts. numerous legal experts comment that the Centre introducing the Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC), under the recent amendments brought in by the government in IT Rules, 2021, makes the government the arbitrator of online speech. MeitY has also proposed new amendments under the IT Rules, 2021, for social media interposers pertaining to policing “fake news” on social media platforms and other digital services.