Government says X may lose safe harbour over Rana Ayyub tweets
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The Union government has told the Delhi High Court that X Corp could lose its safe harbour protection in India for failing to remove tweets posted by journalist Rana Ayyub.
In its submission, the government said the platform did not act despite receiving “actual knowledge” through a judicial order and statutory notices issued by Delhi Police.
The tweets in question are alleged to contain content insulting Hindu deities and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar.
Under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, intermediaries such as social media platforms are granted safe harbour protection from liability for third-party content if they follow due diligence and remove unlawful material upon notification.
The government stated in its affidavit that X’s inaction amounts to non-compliance with due diligence requirements and allows the continued presence of unlawful content, making it liable to lose protection under the law.
The affidavit was filed in response to a plea by Amita Sachdeva, who has sought the deletion of six tweets posted between 2013 and 2017, alleging they are derogatory, inflammatory, and communally sensitive.
In its response, X argued that it is not “the state” under Article 12 of the Constitution and does not perform a public function that would subject it to writ jurisdiction under Article 226. The company also urged the court to direct authorities to follow the procedure under Section 69A of the IT Act for issuing blocking orders.
The government told the court that the process under the Information Technology Rules, 2009, has already been initiated.
