The Delhi High Court on Monday ordered the restoration of two satirical accounts on social media platform X that were withheld in India since March 18 at the Union government’s directions, reported Live Law.
Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav held that while the accounts, @DrNimoYadav and @Nehr_who, should be restored, the allegedly objectionable posts mentioned in the blocking order should remain withheld.
Prateek Sharma, the operator of @DrNimoYadav, and Kumar Nayan, who runs @Nehr_who, were directed to appear before a review committee of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to examine whether the posts will have to continue to be blocked under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.
Under Section 69A of the Act, an authorised official in the Union government, not below the rank of a joint secretary, can send content removal orders to social media platforms if the content is deemed to threaten national security, sovereignty or public order.
On March 18, the Union government directed X to withhold 12 accounts, including popular profiles such as @mrjethwani_ and @Doc_RGM. The account of journalist and activist Sandeep Singh was also withheld.
Hartosh Singh Bal, the editor of The Caravan, said that a March 14 post by the magazine that promoted a 2022 article had also been blocked.
The post had featured the cover of the April 2002 issue of the India Today magazine, which had Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat at the time, on it. The headline on that cover read “Hero of Hatred”.
Sharma challenged the order on March 25, and demanded that the Union government produce the blocking order.
The Centre told the court that the account was blocked after the government found that it was “spreading false narratives involving the prime minister” and “portraying him in bad taste”, reported Bar and Bench.
In an affidavit, the Union government also claimed that the accounts had used photographs, videos and artificial intelligence-generated content to “defame” the prime minister. Spreading such false information may affect public order, leading to internal security threats, it further said.
On April 1, The Indian Express reported that X had told the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology that recent orders to block profiles “excessively and disproportionately restrict the account holder’s rights”.
It added that this is concerning “as the account holder will be unable to use X in India permanently”.
X said that the blocking order issued on March 18 failed to comply with Section 69A of the IT Act.
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