Elon Musk's X Sues Indian Government Over Unlawful Censorship Expansion

India's IT Ministry Accused of Expanding Censorship Powers in New Lawsuit

Elon Musk's X, formerly known as Twitter, has filed a new lawsuit against the Indian government, accusing the IT Ministry of unlawfully expanding its censorship powers. The lawsuit alleges that the Ministry has empowered "countless" government officials to remove online content without proper oversight, bypassing existing legal safeguards.

This escalation in the ongoing legal dispute between X and the Indian government comes as Musk prepares to launch his other ventures, Starlink and Tesla, in the country. The lawsuit claims that the IT Ministry is directing other departments to use a government website to issue content blocking orders, bypassing the stringent legal safeguards that previously required such orders to be issued only in cases of harm to sovereignty or public order.

X argues that this new mechanism creates an "impermissible parallel mechanism" that allows for "unrestrained censorship of information in India." The company is seeking to quash the directive and prevent the government from further expanding its censorship powers.

The lawsuit was briefly heard in the High Court of southern Karnataka state earlier this week, but no final decision was reached. The case will be heard again on March 27.

This development follows a previous standoff between X and the Indian government in 2021, when the company refused to comply with legal orders to block certain tweets related to a farmers' protest. X eventually complied after facing public criticism from officials, but its legal challenge to the decision continues in Indian courts.