The Ministry of IT of India has illegally expanded the powers of censorship to allow the easiest elimination of online content and the “innumerable” government officials to execute such orders, Elon Musk’s X has alleged in a new demand against New Delhi.
Demand and accusations mark an escalation in an ongoing legal dispute between X and the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on how New Delhi orders the content to be withdrawn. It also occurs when Musk is approaching to launch their other key Starlink and Tesla companies in India.
In the new presentation of the Court dated March 5, X argues that the TI Ministry of India is asking other departments to use a government website launched by the Ministry of Interior Affairs last year to issue content blocking orders and demand social media companies that also join the website.
This mechanism, says X, does not contain the strict Indian legal safeguards on the elimination of content that required that these orders be issued in cases such as damage to sovereignty or public order, and came with a strict supervision of senior officials.
The Ti Ministry of India redirected a Reuters‘Application for comments to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which did not respond.
The website creates “an inadmissible parallel mechanism” that causes “censorship of information without restrictions in India,” X said, added that he is looking to annul the directive.
X judicial documents are not public and the media first reported Thursday.
The case was briefly heard earlier this week by a judge in the Superior Court of the state of southern Karnataka, but a final decision was not made. Now it will be heard on March 27.
In 2021, X, previously called Twitter, he was locked in a confrontation with the Indian government for breach of legal orders to block certain tweets related to the protest of farmers against government policies.
X Then he fulfilled after public criticism by officials, but his legal challenge to the decision continues in the Indian courts.