Elon Musk’s X sues Indian govt over content removal powers

(Web Desk): Elon Musk's social media network X, formerly known as Twitter, has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government in court.

According to foreign media reports, X has filed a petition in an Indian court, arguing that the Ministry of IT in India has unlawfully extended its censorship powers to allow the deletion of content from social media.

The petition, filed on March 5, claims that the Ministry of IT granted various government departments the authority to issue content-blocking orders through the Ministry of Home Affairs.

The court was informed that the new system lacks the legal safeguards that previously allowed content removal only in cases where it threatened national security or the sovereignty of the country, and which were subject to strict oversight by senior officials.

The petition also states that India's newly created website for removing social media content has a parallel mechanism through which content is being removed without permission.

Currently, there has been no response from the Indian Ministry of IT on this matter.

A brief hearing of the case took place earlier this week in the Karnataka High Court, and the next hearing has been postponed until March 27.