{"id":250542,"date":"2023-07-03T20:26:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-03T14:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=250542"},"modified":"2023-08-31T14:54:22","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T09:24:22","slug":"a-case-of-unchecked-power-to-restrict-e-free-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/a-case-of-unchecked-power-to-restrict-e-free-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"A case of unchecked power to restrict e-free speech"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cA case of unchecked power to restrict e-free speech\u201d <\/strong>published in The Hindu<\/strong> on 3rd<\/strong> Ju<\/strong>ly<\/strong> 2023<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS2 \u2013 Indian Polity<\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/strong>Right to free speech and digital rights<\/p>\n

News-<\/strong>The Karnataka High Court judgment against Twitter subverts the procedural safeguards that must be employed while restricting the freedom of speech<\/p>\n

What are the issues with Karnataka HC judgement in this case?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Supreme Court of India upheld the validity of Section 69A<\/strong> and the Blocking Rules in Shreya Singhal vs Union of India<\/strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, the Karnataka High Court has held that observations in\u00a0Shreya Singhal\u00a0don\u2019t call for providing notice to the users of the conten<\/strong>t. <\/strong>It is contrary to judicial precedent set by SC.<\/p>\n

The High Court\u2019s judgment reveals that one of the reasons was that the content could lead to the spread of \u201cfake news\u201d and \u201cmisinformation\u201d<\/strong>. <\/strong>These are not grounds under which free speech can be restricted under Article 19(2) and Section 69A. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that there must be a direct link<\/strong> between the speech and the potential threat to public order.However, the High Court is convinced that these blocking orders are \u201cwell-reasoned\u201d, even though no nexus can be established with public order<\/strong> and the security of the state.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the High Court rejected Twitter\u2019s contention<\/strong> that Section 69A only permits the blocking of specific tweets. Wholesale blocking of Twitter accounts<\/strong> amounts to limiting freem of future speech and expression.<\/p>\n

What are the implications of this decision for freedom of speech?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It has the potential of inducing a chilling effect<\/strong> on the freedom of speech of online platform users.<\/p>\n

The Karnataka High Court\u2019s judgment erodes the principles of natural justice <\/strong>which dictate for the affected party should be allowed to present their case to the best of their abilities.<\/p>\n

Along with the recently amended IT Rules on fact-checking<\/strong>, the judgment has the dangerous potential of reposing untrammelled power in the State<\/strong> to remove any content that it deems to be unfavourable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cA case of unchecked power to restrict e-free speech\u201d published in The Hindu on 3rd July 2023. Syllabus: GS2 \u2013 Indian Polity Relevance: Right to free speech and digital rights News-The Karnataka High Court judgment against Twitter subverts the procedural safeguards that must be employed while restricting… Continue reading A case of unchecked power to restrict e-free speech<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"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":[212,225,10498],"class_list":["post-250542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-polity","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250542","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\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}