Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government, challenging its use of takedown orders to remove online content. India, the world’s largest democracy, is among the top five countries globally for government requests to remove social media posts.
The lawsuit is X’s latest move to push back against India’s censorship powers, coinciding with Musk’s ventures, Starlink and Tesla, preparing to enter the world’s fifth-largest economy.
At the heart of the case is the government’s use of a legal provision to issue blocking orders, which X claims bypasses existing safeguards. Indian legal news site Bar and Bench reported, “According to X, this provision is being misused to create an unlawful parallel mechanism for blocking information.”
The case will be heard by a court in Karnataka on March 27, following an inconclusive hearing earlier this week.
X has a history of legal battles over content regulation in India. In 2023, an Indian court fined the platform $61,000 (R1 million) after dismissing its challenge to orders removing tweets and accounts critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Nearly a year later, X said an appeal against the government’s blocking orders “on specific accounts and posts” remains pending. In February 2024, the company stated on X, “Consistent with our position, a writ appeal challenging the Indian government’s blocking orders remains pending. We have also provided the impacted users with notice of these actions in accordance with our policies.”
X added, “Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency. This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making.”
The lawsuit highlights the ongoing tension between global tech platforms and governments over content moderation and transparency.
