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Journalism of Courage
The Centre has informed the Karnataka High Court that Elon Musk’s social media platform X referring to the government’s Sahyog portal as a “censorship portal” is “unfortunate” and “condemnable”. It also said 38 leading IT intermediaries — including Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Telegram, Apple, Sharechat, Snapchat, LinkedIn, and YouTube — have already joined the portal, which comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
On March 17, X filed a lawsuit against the Centre challenging the use of Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act, 2000, to issue blocking orders, claiming that it leads to the creation of a “parallel” and “unlawful” content censorship regime.
The company also sought protection for its representatives and employees against coercive action for not joining Sahyog.
The Centre, in its Statement of Objections submitted to the HC, has listed an array of arguments against X’s earlier contentions. The case will be next heard on April 3.
The Centre said X’s petition was merely camouflaged as seeking interpretations of sections 79 and 69A, whereas it was actually seeking to press rights it did not possess under articles 19, 14 and 21 of the Constitution. It said as a foreign entity, the only right that X would have are the “safe harbour” protections.
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