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The
U.S. company's attempt to get a judicial review is part of a
growing confrontation with New Delhi.
Twitter has been asked by Indian authorities over the past year
to act on content including accounts supportive of an
independent Sikh state, posts alleged to have spread
misinformation about protests by farmers and over tweets
critical of the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
India's IT ministry did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a
request for comment about Twitter's legal move.
The Indian government has previously said that big social media
firms, including Twitter, have not complied with removal
requests, despite their legal standing.
Late last month, Twitter was warned by India's IT ministry of
criminal proceedings if it did not comply with some orders.
Twitter complied this week, the source said, so as not to lose
liability exemptions available as a host of content.
Twitter argues in its request for a judicial review that some
removal orders fell short of the procedural requirements of
India's IT act, the source said, without specifying which ones
Twitter wanted to be reviewed.
The IT act allows the government to block public access to
content in the interest of national security, among other
reasons.
Twitter, which market research firms say has nearly 24 million
users in India, also argues in its filing that some of the
orders failed to give notice to authors of the content.
It also says that some were related to political content posted
by official handles of political parties, the blocking of which
amount to violation of freedom of speech, the source added.
Tensions with the Indian government flared early last year when
Twitter declined to fully comply with an order to take down
accounts and posts which New Delhi alleged were spreading
misinformation about anti-government protests by farmers.
The company has also been subject to police investigations in
India and last year many Indian government ministers moved to
domestically developed platform Koo, accusing Twitter of
non-compliance with local laws.
Twitter has also faced a backlash in India for blocking accounts
of influential individuals, including politicians, citing
violations of its policies.
India, which industry transparency reports show has among the
highest government requests for content takedowns, is
considering some amendments to its new IT rules, including the
introduction of a government-run appeals panel with the power to
reverse the content moderation decisions of social media firms.
New Delhi has said such measures were needed because the
companies had violated Indians' constitutional rights.
(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in New Delhi; Editing by
Alexander Smith)
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