The social media company X, owned by the world’s wealthiest individual Elon Musk, has filed a lawsuit against the government of India. The company alleges that the government unlawfully blocked content on the platform.

According to a report from The Washington Post (WP), the X social media platform filed a lawsuit against the Indian government in early March. The lawsuit claims that the establishment of a “censorship portal” in the country gives state institutions and officials the power to issue mass instructions for content removal, thus violating the Indian Constitution and Information Technology Act. The lawsuit states that this situation will significantly censor and unlawfully block legal information on X, causing harm to the social media platform. It is reported that the company is demanding the cancellation of these instructions. However, there has been no official statement from the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology regarding this matter.

This move comes at a time when Musk is exploring new economic ventures in India through his Starlink and Tesla initiatives.

ONLINE REGULATION IN INDIA

On February 8, 2021, India requested X (formerly known as Twitter) to shut down or block 1178 accounts that were posting about ongoing farmer protests across the country. Subsequently, new rules for social media platforms in the country were announced. The internet regulation required platforms like Facebook and X to remove posts deemed criminal, share user traffic and information in the face of malicious information spreading attempts, and allow third parties to access all posts for legal monitoring. Tensions between the Indian government and X escalated after these developments. In 2023, India called on social media platforms including X, YouTube, and Telegram to remove content containing child sexual abuse.