India Court Fines Twitter Over Contents On Its Platform
Twitter has been fined by a court in India over its contents. In July 2022, twitter had taken the Indian Government to court over its orders to block certain accounts and tweets.
Last week, the Karnataka high court dismissed twitter’s case and imposed a fine of $61,000 on the company for not complying with the contested orders for over a year.
Twitter has more than 24 million users in India, by one estimate. The verdict has left many digital rights experts worried.
The case was filed by twitter under its previous leadership. Under new owner Elon Musk, the company has complied with take down orders.
The recent judgement raises concerns about free speech since the government has been accused of increasing its censorship of online content in recent years.
Federal Minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said that all foreign internet platforms had to comply with Indian laws.
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In 2022, India blocked 3,417 Twitter URLs, while only eight twitter URLs had been blocked in 2014.
Experts say that this judgment limits users’ ability to defend their right to free speech.
Users “won’t be given a chance to defend themselves before a blocking order is passed” said Sachin Dhawan,
A programme manager at Digital Rights Research body Centre for Communication Governance.
“Even after an order is passed, they will be left in the dark about why their content has been blocked” he added.
As a result, “a process which was already shrouded in secrecy will become even more opaque,” he said.
Mr Dhawan added that this undermined “basic due processes” such as giving a “notice and a hearing” to an aggrieved party.
However, another significant case pending before the Delhi High Court may lead to a different outcome.
It relates to a satirical dowry calculator website being blocked by the government without the website’s founder being given a notice.
In May last year, the High Court directed the government to provide the founder a copy of the order and give him a hearing,
during which the ban was upheld. The court is now hearing whether the website can be blocked.
The court’s order to provide a copy to the founder “inspires hope”, Ms Roy from Internet Freedom Foundation said. However, the final verdict is yet to be decided.
