Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday dismissed the social media platform ‘X’s petition challenging the authority of the government officials to issue a content take-down order under the Information Technology Act.
The bench presided over by Justice M Nagaprasanna maintained that social media needs to be regulated, especially in the cases of offences against women.
“Social media needs to be regulated, and its regulation is a must, more so in cases of offenses against women, in particular, failing which the right to dignity, as ordained in the Constitution of a citizen, gets railroaded,” the court maintained.
The plea sought a declaration that Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act does not provide authority to government officers to issue orders directing the block of information.
The court observed that the X Corp follows the takedown orders in the United States, the place where the X was. The US administration criminalises its violation.
“But the same petitioner refuses to follow the same on the shores of this nation, of similar takedown orders which are founded upon illegality. This is sans countenance. The petition for all the aforesaid reasons lacking in merit stands rejected,” Justice Nagaprasanna noted.
In March this year, X filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court, challenging the Indian government’s use of Section 79(3) of the Information Technology Act.
In the plea, the social media platform stated that the section contradicts the Supreme Court’s 2015 Shreya Singhal ruling, which upheld that content removal must follow due legal procedure.
Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries lose “safe harbour” protections if they fail to take down content upon government directives.
