Twitter ‘intentionally’ remained defiant to legal guidelines of the land: Centre tells Karnataka HC

By PTI

BENGALURU: The Centre has advised the Karnataka High Court that Twitter “deliberately” remained non-compliant and defiant to the legal guidelines of the land and that the social media big has no position to play within the safety of the nation.

The submission was made by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in its 101-page assertion of objections on Thursday whereas opposing the micro-blogging platform’s petition earlier than the excessive courtroom in opposition to the federal government’s takedown and blocking orders.

On the claims by Twitter that political tweets had been requested to be taken down, the Centre acknowledged that it had solely requested for unverified accounts to be blocked.

ALSO READ | ‘Twitter knowingly allowed Indian authorities to position its brokers on firm payroll’: Whistleblower

“The petitioner deliberately remained non-compliant and defiant to the laws of the land. Only on the diligent follow up of the respondent No.2(Centre) and upon the issuance of show cause notice dated 27.06.2022 the petitioner for reasons best known to it suddenly complied with all the blocking directions,” the Centre mentioned whereas in search of dismissal of the petition.

Twitter has challenged blocking orders for 39 URLs.

The listening to within the case is slated to be held on September 8.

In its petition, Twitter had claimed that freedom of speech is affected by the takedown notices of the federal government.

The originators of the content material on its platform weren’t issued notices earlier than their content material was requested to be taken down, it mentioned.

However, the federal government in its objections mentioned that since Twitter was the middleman, it was the microblogging web site’s duty to tell the customers.

ALSO READ | Twitter deliberate to earn money through monetizing porn on its platform

“When a public order issue arises, it is the government that is responsible to take action and not the platform. Hence, whether content will cause national security or public order issues or not should not be allowed to be determined by the platforms.”

The Centre submitted that any personal coverage or guidelines made by on-line platforms are topic to the Information Technology Act 2000.

“Foreign platforms providing services in the country shall not be entitled to claim that the Indian laws and rules are not applicable upon them. Any such claim is legally untenable,” it mentioned.

The objections additionally referred to as for dismissal of the petition on the bottom that Twitter isn’t entitled to hunt reduction as it’s not a citizen of India.

“Article 21 rights are not available to artificial juristic entities, much less, to any foreign commercial entity. The present petition even if it attempts to allege breach of Article 21 rights, is therefore, not maintainable at the instance of the petitioner foreign company.”

ALSO READ | Parliament panel grills Twitter officers over knowledge safety, privateness, says replies ‘not passable’

The authorities mentioned it’s its duty to guard over 84 crore Indians utilizing Internet from anti-India propaganda, pretend information and hate speech content material.

“These contents have the potential to jeopardize the peace in the country. Thus, it becomes essential to detect and block such misinformation content and fake news at the initial stage itself to prevent a public order catastrophe like situation in the country.”

BENGALURU: The Centre has advised the Karnataka High Court that Twitter “deliberately” remained non-compliant and defiant to the legal guidelines of the land and that the social media big has no position to play within the safety of the nation.

The submission was made by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in its 101-page assertion of objections on Thursday whereas opposing the micro-blogging platform’s petition earlier than the excessive courtroom in opposition to the federal government’s takedown and blocking orders.

On the claims by Twitter that political tweets had been requested to be taken down, the Centre acknowledged that it had solely requested for unverified accounts to be blocked.

ALSO READ | ‘Twitter knowingly allowed Indian authorities to position its brokers on firm payroll’: Whistleblower

“The petitioner deliberately remained non-compliant and defiant to the laws of the land. Only on the diligent follow up of the respondent No.2(Centre) and upon the issuance of show cause notice dated 27.06.2022 the petitioner for reasons best known to it suddenly complied with all the blocking directions,” the Centre mentioned whereas in search of dismissal of the petition.

Twitter has challenged blocking orders for 39 URLs.

The listening to within the case is slated to be held on September 8.

In its petition, Twitter had claimed that freedom of speech is affected by the takedown notices of the federal government.

The originators of the content material on its platform weren’t issued notices earlier than their content material was requested to be taken down, it mentioned.

However, the federal government in its objections mentioned that since Twitter was the middleman, it was the microblogging web site’s duty to tell the customers.

ALSO READ | Twitter deliberate to earn money through monetizing porn on its platform

“When a public order issue arises, it is the government that is responsible to take action and not the platform. Hence, whether content will cause national security or public order issues or not should not be allowed to be determined by the platforms.”

The Centre submitted that any personal coverage or guidelines made by on-line platforms are topic to the Information Technology Act 2000.

“Foreign platforms providing services in the country shall not be entitled to claim that the Indian laws and rules are not applicable upon them. Any such claim is legally untenable,” it mentioned.

The objections additionally referred to as for dismissal of the petition on the bottom that Twitter isn’t entitled to hunt reduction as it’s not a citizen of India.

“Article 21 rights are not available to artificial juristic entities, much less, to any foreign commercial entity. The present petition even if it attempts to allege breach of Article 21 rights, is therefore, not maintainable at the instance of the petitioner foreign company.”

ALSO READ | Parliament panel grills Twitter officers over knowledge safety, privateness, says replies ‘not passable’

The authorities mentioned it’s its duty to guard over 84 crore Indians utilizing Internet from anti-India propaganda, pretend information and hate speech content material.

“These contents have the potential to jeopardize the peace in the country. Thus, it becomes essential to detect and block such misinformation content and fake news at the initial stage itself to prevent a public order catastrophe like situation in the country.”