Karnataka HC dumps Twitter plea; slaps a fine of 50 lakh

By Vinaykumar Patil  |  First Published Jun 30, 2023, 1:21 PM IST

The Karnataka High Court has dismissed Twitter's plea challenging the blocking of certain accounts by the Indian government and fined the company Rs 50 lakh. The court stated that Twitter, as a foreign company, cannot interfere with Indians' right to freedom of expression and personal liberty.


The Karnataka High Court has dismissed a plea by social media platform Twitter, challenging the decision to block certain accounts on the orders by the Centre. Twitter has also been fined Rs 50 lakh. 

Justice Krishna Dixit slammed Twitter, saying: "As a foreign company, Twitter cannot intervene in the Right to freedom of Expression and personal liberty of Indians under Articles 19 and 21 of the Constitution."

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Twitter had approached the Karnataka High Court regarding the central government's orders to block several Twitter accounts. The judge ordered Twitter to pay the fine of Rs 50 lakh for not giving enough reasons to support their case. The fine must be paid within 45 days, and an extra 5,000 every day if the payment is delayed.

The high court also issued a statement saying that Twitter is not a farmer or a common man to be unfamiliar with law and order. A billion-dollar company should know better.

The case:

Twitter had gone against the Central government for orders to block tweets and accounts. It had filed a lawsuit against the government last year suing that the Indian government had abused its power by ordering to remove the tweets disproportionately from the platform.

Further to the lawsuit, the social media giant was ordered to remove hundreds of accounts objectionable to the government’s policies and defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Adding to the petition, Twitter accused the government of violating the people’s Right to Freedom of expression under Article 19a. The case continued over a year, and the High Court has finally announced the judgment in favour of the Indian government.

The judgment:

The high court summoned Twitter that they do not have any locus standi on the citizens of India, as the company does not have any 'Jural relationship' between the company and users; it is supposed to act just as an intermedium.

The counsel for the government, Additional Solicitor General R Sankaranarayanan argued regarding the decision to blockage of the tweets and accounts. 

The tweets in which the government issued blockage had content that viled Indian-occupied Kashmir and Velupillai Prabhakaran, an LTTE leader’s survival.

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As a foreign billion-Dollar company, Twitter does not have the right to gain benefits from Article 19a regarding its users. Thus, it does not possess any right for Locus Standi to file the petition. It is directed to pay fine to the Karnataka's Legal Service Authority.

Twitter also argued that if the tweets do not meet Section 69a, the tweets only should be deleted, not the whole account. This will result in barring content creation, whereas the already created content will be removed if you block a tweet.

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