Mumbai: Social media giant X Corp has moved the Karnataka High Court challenging the Indian government’s use of the ‘Sahyog’ portal, an online platform that facilitates information-blocking orders without following the safeguards laid out under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act).
The petition comes in response to multiple take-down orders issued by the Union Ministry of Railways following social media posts about the New Delhi Railway Station stampede.
According to sources, the case was briefly heard before Justice M. Nagaprasanna on March 17 and has now been scheduled for a detailed hearing on March 27.
X Corp has raised concerns over the misuse of Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, which provides intermediaries with liability exemptions for third-party content. The company argues that the government is using this provision to create an unlawful parallel mechanism for blocking content instead of adhering to the prescribed Section 69A framework, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in the landmark Shreya Singhal v. Union of India judgment.
The petition alleges the following:
- The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has allowed state and central agencies, including local law enforcement, to issue take-down orders under Section 79(3)(b), bypassing the Section 69A process.
- MeitY has allegedly provided agencies with a “template blocking order” to facilitate takedown requests, which X claims violates Supreme Court guidelines on information blocking.
- The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) created the ‘Sahyog’ portal to allow government bodies to directly issue blocking orders without following due process or procedural safeguards.
X Corp has sought the following reliefs from the High Court:
- A declaration that Section 79(3)(b) does not grant the government powers to issue blocking orders, as such actions fall exclusively under Section 69A.
- Quashing of the impugned blocking orders and restraining the government from taking coercive action against X based on these directives.
- Interim relief to prevent the government from forcing X Corp to comply with orders issued through the Sahyog portal or any other mechanism that circumvents Section 69A.
