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The Karnataka High Court has dismissed X Corp’s petition against the Union government’s Sahyog portal, which enables contented takedown nether Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. The ruling marks a setback for X’s (previously Twitter) months-long litigation and endorses the government’s contented regularisation framework, which has already been adopted by 38 intermediaries, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Telegram. Delivering the verdict, Justice M. Nagaprasanna said that societal media “cannot beryllium near successful a authorities of anarchic freedom” and that India’s integer abstraction could not beryllium treated arsenic a “mere playground wherever accusation tin beryllium disseminated successful defiance of statutes.”
How does the Sahyog portal operate?
Launched by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) successful October 2024, the Sahyog portal is operated by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) arsenic a centralised level for issuing takedown orders to net intermediaries, including telecom operators, net work providers, societal media platforms, and web-hosting services. Its intent is to enforce Section 79 of the IT Act, which grants intermediaries “safe harbour” extortion — shielding them from liability for user-generated content. For instance, a level cannot ordinarily beryllium sued for a defamatory station published by a user. The ineligible liability rests solely with the idiosyncratic who created the content.
However, this extortion is conditional. Under Section 79(3)(b), intermediaries suffer their immunity if, aft receiving “actual knowledge” from a authorities bureau astir unlawful information, they neglect to “expeditiously region oregon disable access” to it. The portal was introduced to automate and streamline the issuance of specified notices. Its beingness was archetypal disclosed successful Shabana versus Govt. of NCT of Delhi and Ors (2024), a Delhi High Court lawsuit concerning a missing 19-year-old. During the proceedings, the tribunal stressed the request for a mechanics to facilitate real-time coordination betwixt intermediaries and instrumentality enforcement successful time-sensitive cases.
Court records reviewed by The Hindu amusement that astir a 3rd of the 66 takedown notices sent to X by I4C implicit the past twelvemonth targeted posts astir Union Ministers and Central authorities agencies. Posts referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and his lad Jay Shah, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were among those flagged for removal.
Why did X spell to court?
In March, Elon Musk-owned X filed a writ petition successful the Karnataka High Court challenging the legality of the Sahyog portal, which it described arsenic a “censorship portal.” The institution argued that the authorities was invoking Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act to sidestep the stricter and much transparent process nether Section 69A.
According to X, the 2 provisions service chiseled purposes. Section 79 simply grants intermediaries harmless harbour extortion from liability for user-generated content, portion Section 69A empowers the Centre to artifact online material, but lone connected grounds that reflector the tenable restrictions connected escaped code nether Article 19(2) of the Constitution specified arsenic for upholding sovereignty and integrity of India, information of the State, affable relations with overseas States, preserving nationalist bid etc. Notably, Section 69A besides mandates that the authorities represent a committee, springiness intermediaries a accidental to beryllium heard, and contented a reasoned written order, thereby ensuring the anticipation of judicial review.
To bolster its case, X relied connected the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling successful Shreya Singhal versus Union of India (2015), which struck down Section 66A of the IT Act for vagueness and upheld Section 69A arsenic the sole constitutionally valid model for restricting online content, taxable to procedural safeguards. The tribunal had clarified that takedown directions nether Section 79(3)(b) could lone travel a tribunal bid oregon a ceremonial authorities notification, and indispensable stay tethered to the law grounds successful Article 19(2), arsenic reflected successful Section 69A. By permitting thousands of officials crossed some Union and State governments to contented notices done Sahyog, X argued, the Centre had created a “parallel” and “unlawful” censorship authorities that lacked these safeguards.
In enactment of X’s challenge, DigiPub, an relation of 92 integer quality outlets, besides intervened successful the proceedings, contending that takedown orders routed done Sahyog had a disproportionate interaction connected its members, whose reporting was often targeted.
What was the government’s defence?
The Union authorities defended Sahyog arsenic a indispensable regulatory mechanism. It argued that the distinctive quality of the Internet, with its algorithm-driven virality, required stricter oversight than accepted media. Safe harbour, it said, was a statutory privilege, not an inherent right, and platforms that failed to enactment connected unlawful contented notices would forfeit this protection. Sahyog simply operationalised this work by creating a streamlined transmission for specified notices.
Rejecting the allegation that it had created a parallel blocking regime, the authorities emphasised that Sections 79 and 69A operated independently. Non-compliance with a Sahyog notice, it argued, did not magnitude to nonstop censorship but lone to the nonaccomplishment of ineligible immunity. The portal, it insisted, was simply an administrative instrumentality to facilitate swift enactment against amerciable online content.
The authorities besides questioned X Corp’s locus standi, pointing retired that arsenic a overseas corporation, it could not invoke cardinal rights nether Article 19, which guarantees the state of code and look exclusively to Indian citizens. Represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, the Union authorities contended that X was seeking “special treatment” successful India portion complying with comparable regulatory regimes elsewhere. It further pointed retired that X was the lone large intermediary yet to integrate with Sahyog.
What has the High Court ruled?
Dismissing X’s situation arsenic “devoid of merit,” Justice Nagaprasanna described Sahyog arsenic some an “instrument of nationalist good” and a “beacon of practice betwixt national and intermediary.” He emphasised that oversight was particularly captious successful cases affecting the dignity of women.
The tribunal besides upheld the Centre’s objection to X’s ineligible standing, ruling that Article 19 of the Constitution is simply a “charter of rights conferred upon citizens only.” Since X is not a national of India, it ruled that “the protective clasp of Article 19 cannot beryllium invoked” by the company. Issuing a stern caution to overseas societal media corporations, the judgement warned that India could not beryllium treated arsenic a “playground” wherever accusation is disseminated “in defiance of the law” and aboriginal disowned done “a posture of detachment.” Entry into the Indian marketplace, the tribunal underscored, is simply a “privilege tied to work and accountability,” and nary level tin assertion exemption from the country’s ineligible framework.
In a pointed critique of X’s conduct, Justice Nagaprasanna observed that the level complied with takedown regimes successful the United States, “yet the aforesaid level refuses to comply with takedown directions successful this nation”. Referring to the U.S. Take It Down Act, 2025, which criminalises the work of AI-generated deepfakes and non-consensual intimate imagery, helium noted that X readily adhered to U.S. laws that enforce transgression liability for non-compliance, but resisted equivalent obligations successful India.
The tribunal besides rejected X’s main contention that the Sahyog portal lacked statutory backing and that Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act did not authorise contented takedown.
Justice Nagaprasanna reasoned that the Supreme Court’s ruling successful Shreya Singhal was anchored successful the now-defunct Information Technology Rules of 2011 and could not beryllium “transposed” to the contiguous context.
The 2021 IT Rules, helium held, are “fresh successful their conception and chiseled successful their design” and truthful “demand their ain interpretative frame, unsaddled by precedents that addressed a bygone regime.”
What are the implications?
Prateek Waghre, Head of Programs astatine Tech Global Institute, told The Hindu that the High Court’s ruling risks enabling an unchecked enlargement of authorities power implicit online content. “The occupation lies successful the lack of clear, narrow, and nonsubjective criteria for what constitutes unlawful content. In practice, this is apt to effect successful broader censorship of accusation that fosters governmental accountability, arsenic good arsenic the suppression of views crossed the spectrum,” helium said.
Mr. Waghre cautioned that contented takedowns, whether initiated by platforms oregon directed by instrumentality enforcement, are not a sustainable solution, since some actors often run selectively and successful self-serving ways. “Law enforcement already has mechanisms to prosecute harmful code nether transgression codes, but these are enforced inconsistently and subjectively. Without deeper societal and governmental reforms that disincentivise harmful look and curb selective enforcement, the trade-off betwixt curbing maltreatment of powerfulness and safeguarding escaped look volition endure. There are nary casual fixes here”.
In a connection issued connected September 29, X said it was “deeply concerned” by the single-judge verdict and would record an appeal. However, it did not clarify whether the situation would beryllium placed earlier a larger Bench of the Karnataka High Court oregon taken straight to the Supreme Court.
X further argued that the ruling was inconsistent with a Bombay High Court judgement delivered past twelvemonth successful September, which struck down the Union government’s Press Information Bureau fact-checking portion connected the crushed that it violated principles of earthy justness by permitting unilateral determinations by the executive.
