Elon Musk led social media platform X has filed a petition in the Karnataka High court against the Indian government, challenging the use of Section 79 (3) of the Information Technology Act, according to a Hindustan Times report. X argues that the use of this section by the Indian government sets up an illegal parallel content blocking process and also violates Supreme Court’s 2015 order in the Shreya Singhal case that affirmed that content can only be blocked under sturctured process of Section 69 A of IT Act.
The Section 79 (3) (b) of the IT Act states that an intermediary can lose protection against liability for third party content called ‘safe harbour’ if it fails to remove or disable content after being informed by the ‘appropriate’ government or agency.
The social media giant reportedly argues that the PM Modi-led government is misusing Section 79 (3) (b) to bypass the safeguards of Section 69A and arbitrarily censor content online.
X has also sought protection from the High Court for not onboarding an employee on Sahyog portal – where state police and various other government departments can directly issue takedown orders without following the process laid down under Section 69A. X has called the this portal a ‘Censorship Portal’ and argued that the government does not have the authority to create such a portal under the law.
X has argued that the orders issued by the government under the IT Act would lead to “significant and unrestrained censorship of information in India”.
“The law mandates that information blocking can only be carried out under Section 69A, which provides for judicial scrutiny. By using Section 79(3)(b) as an alternative mechanism, the government is effectively nullifying the Supreme Court’s directives,” X stated in its petition as per a Moneycontrol report.
Union Govt probing Grok:
The new lawsuit comes amidst multiple reports suggesting that Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is in touch with X over recent incidents of its AI chatbot Grok using Hindi slang and abusive responses.
According to a report by news agency PTI, the IT ministry is examining the issue. It will investigate the matter and the factors that led to the use of abusive language.
Grok, the powerful AI chatbot on Elon Musk’s X, shocked netizens recently. Grok revealed its wild side when its response in Hindi came loaded with abuses and slang following provocation by users. On subjects such as politics, cinema, and celebrities, Grok has left some users bedazzled by its opinionated responses. In other instances, Grok has used regional slang and abuses.