The Indian government has strongly criticised Elon Musk\u2019s lawsuit for mischaracterising an official government platform as a \u201ccensorship portal\u201d, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters. The dispute comes as Musk\u2019s companies, Starlink and Tesla, gear up to launch in India.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe use of the said terminology by a worldwide portal like X is unfortunate and condemnable,\u201d IT Ministry reportedly stated in court filings on March 27, arguing that X\u2019s allegations of censorship are \u201cgroundless\u201d. <\/p>\n
X files lawsuit against Centre <\/p>\n
X filed a lawsuit in Karnataka\u2019s High Court on March 5, seeking to quash the government\u2019s Sahyog portal, which notifies tech companies about harmful online content. The company claims the initiative expands India\u2019s censorship powers by allowing government officials to bypass judicial oversight and directly order content removals. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Indian government insists that the Sahyog portal only serves as a compliance tool, not a censorship mechanism, and that no content is blocked without due process. <\/p>\n
India\u2019s IT Act at centre of legal battle <\/p>\n
The legal complaint centres around India\u2019s Information Technology Act, which governs online content removal. Traditionally, under Section 69A, content could be blocked only after a judicial review by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). <\/p>\n
However, X argues that India\u2019s use of Section 79(3)(b) creates a \u201cparallel mechanism\u201d where officials can demand content removal through a simple notification, without judicial scrutiny. The lawsuit argues that this system enables \u201carbitrary censorship\u201d. <\/p>\n
Grok AI adds fuel to the fire <\/p>\n
Adding to X\u2019s challenges, Grok, the platform\u2019s AI chatbot, has come under scrutiny in India for allegedly producing controversial and abusive content. The ruling BJP government is reportedly reviewing Grok\u2019s responses for potential violations of India\u2019s IT laws. <\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s business interests in India <\/p>\n
This legal battle comes at a critical moment for Elon Musk, who has long sought to expand his business empire in India. Tesla has renewed its push to enter the Indian market, while Starlink has signed partnerships with two Indian firms to bring satellite internet to the country. <\/p>\n
Musk also met PM Narendra Modi in the US, discussing collaborations in AI, space exploration, and innovation. The Karnataka High Court is set to hear X\u2019s challenge against the Sahyog portal on Thursday, April 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Indian government has strongly criticised Elon Musk\u2019s lawsuit for mischaracterising an official government platform as a \u201ccensorship portal\u201d, according to court documents reviewed by Reuters. The dispute comes as Musk\u2019s companies, Starlink and Tesla, gear up to launch in India. \u201cThe use of the said terminology by a worldwide portal like X is unfortunate and condemnable,\u201d IT Ministry reportedly stated in court filings on March 27, arguing that X\u2019s allegations of censorship are \u201cgroundless\u201d. X files lawsuit against Centre X filed a lawsuit in Karnataka\u2019s High Court on March 5, seeking to quash the government\u2019s Sahyog portal, which notifies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-917553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-it-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917553\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}