Twitters plea against India government dismissed

An Indian court has dismissed Twitter’s lawsuit against the Indian government that sought to challenge New Delhi’s block orders on tweets and accounts.

The Karnataka High Court dismissed the plea, filed last year, and also fined the Elon Musk-owned firm 5 million Indian rupees ($61,000).

“Your client (Twitter) was given notices and your client did not comply. Punishment for non-compliance is 7 years imprisonment and unlimited fine. That also did not deter your client. So you have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay… then all of sudden you comply and approach the Court. You are not a farmer but a billon dollar company,” a single judge bench said in scathing verdict Friday.

Twitter filed the plea against the Indian government in Karnataka High Court in Bengaluru last year, before the takeover by Musk, alleging that New Delhi had abused its power by ordering it to arbitrarily and disproportionately remove several tweets from its platform. Additionally, some block orders “pertain to political content that is posted by official handles of political parties,” Twitter said in the lawsuit.

Musk last year cited Twitter’s litigation against the Indian government as one of the many reasons he wanted to get out of the acquisition deal. His lawyers said that the lawsuit put Twitter’s third largest market at “risk.”

All platforms hv to be in compliance with Indian law n @Twitter under @jack repeatedly refused to do so. In response to @GoI_MeitY 's notice for non-compliance they approached Karnataka High Court n judgement

Karnataka High Court has dismissed the petition filed by…

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@Rajeev_GoI) June 30, 2023