NEW DELHI: Just days after the Delhi High Court took strong exception to tweets posted by journalist Rana Ayyub between 2013 and 2017 on Hindu deities and figures associated with the Hindutva ideology, the Centre on Friday informed the court that steps had been initiated as per law to block certain “derogatory” and communally sensitive posts.
The Central government further noted that X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, was “liable to lose its safe harbour protection in India” because it had failed to act against the scribe’s posts targeting Hindu deities and Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar.
“The police notices and trial court order constitute ‘actual knowledge’ under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, triggering a statutory obligation on X to act expeditiously and remove such unlawful content. As X failed to act despite ‘actual knowledge,’ the safe harbour protection available to it is liable to be withdrawn,” the court was told.
In a note submitted to Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, the Central government and the police stated that the investigating agency had requested the authority concerned on April 9 to block the objectionable tweets as per Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. The request is under consideration and appropriate action under would be taken by the authority concerned under the IT blocking rules.
“It is submitted that the Union of India under the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009 has initiated the proceedings in accordance with law. It is submitted that the designated officer... shall take an appropriate decision,” the note to the court said.