{"id":194564,"date":"2022-07-07T17:03:36","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T11:33:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=194564"},"modified":"2022-07-07T17:03:36","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T11:33:36","slug":"twitters-legal-challenge-to-centres-takedown-orders-flags-issues-of-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/twitters-legal-challenge-to-centres-takedown-orders-flags-issues-of-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Twitter\u2019s legal challenge to Centre\u2019s takedown orders flags issues of free speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article \u201cTwitter\u2019s legal challenge to Centre\u2019s takedown orders flags issues of free speech<\/strong>\u201d published in The Indian Express<\/strong> on 7th Jul 22<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus<\/strong>: GS2 – Govt policies and interventions<\/p>\n

Relevance<\/strong>: Digital India, Free speech<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>: As the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) conducts a week-long celebration to mark eight years of the Digital India program, Twitter has filed a writ petition in the Karnataka High Court against it.<\/p>\n

It is representative of a Faustian bargain of digitization<\/strong> that promises financial and social benefits when we give up our civil and political rights.<\/p>\n

Digital connectivity has increased manifold in India over the years. But, is mere connectivity enough to fulfill the democratic promises of the Constitution?<\/p>\n

Why has Twitter gone to court?<\/h5>\n

Twitter has been prompted to go to court to protect the integrity of its platform, rather than in arrogant defiance against the laws of India.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> As per parliamentary data, the number of such orders has risen<\/strong> from 471 in 2014 to 9,849 in 2020 representing a 1991 percent increase (Unstarred Question 1788).<\/p>\n

What are the issues involved?<\/h5>\n

A comprehensive qualitative assessment of such orders is prevented by official secrecy<\/strong>. The need for disclosure emerges directly from a joint reading of the Shreya Singhal<\/a><\/span><\/strong> and Anuradha Bhasin<\/a><\/span> judgments<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> Through a voluntary mechanism, Twitter sporadically uploads the specific web addresses included in blocking orders to the Lumen Database,<\/strong> a project that houses legal complaints and requests for the removal of content. This is a transparency practice not followed by any other social media company operating in India.<\/p>\n

From a citizens\u2019 rights perspective, however, the need to rely on a voluntary mechanism is a cause for concern<\/strong>. It is also unsustainable, as it may eventually come under threat.<\/p>\n

Another persisting issue has been the failure to provide a prior show-cause notice and opportunity to the actual users<\/strong> whose web content is blocked.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> Take the case of Tanul Thakur, a journalist who in his free time made a satirical website to parody the social evil of dowry. His website was blocked without any notice<\/strong> provided to him, and the blocking order itself was never provided. Even after approaching the Delhi High Court, MEITY only provided the order to him and his lawyers.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> Another instance is when Sushant Singh, an actor, author, and presenter, was blocked without any order being served on him. He had to approach the Bombay High Court for redress.<\/p>\n

There are regulatory proposals to increase government control<\/strong> over the internet. In a recently concluded public consultation to amend the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 injuries to free expression and privacy are being reinforced.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> A draft of the amendments proposes the appointment of a Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC)<\/strong> as a government body that would hear appeals against the decisions of social media platforms to remove or not remove content.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> The draft amendments state that the GAC will be a government-appointed body, but do not state whether this body will grant a right of hearing to content creators or even publish its orders.<\/p>\n

What are the concerns with GAC?<\/h5>\n

Firstly,<\/strong><\/em> the executive-constituted committee will make the central government (instead of, ideally, an independent judicial or a regulatory body) the arbiter of permissible speech on the internet.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> It would incentivise social media platforms to suppress any speech that may not be palatable to the government, public officials, or those who can exert political pressure.<\/p>\n

Secondly,<\/strong><\/em> it will empower the government to censor speech on grounds not stated under Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 or Article 19(2) of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

–<\/strong> Hence, the government may even bypass the need to issue blocking orders, and instead, decide to crowdsource censorship.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: This post is based on the article \u201cTwitter\u2019s legal challenge to Centre\u2019s takedown orders flags issues of free speech\u201d published in The Indian Express on 7th Jul 22. Syllabus: GS2 – Govt policies and interventions Relevance: Digital India, Free speech News: As the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) conducts a week-long celebration to… Continue reading Twitter\u2019s legal challenge to Centre\u2019s takedown orders flags issues of free speech<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10500],"class_list":["post-194564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-indian-express","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704861334},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194564"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194564\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}