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22-03-2025
Bureau Report
NEW DELHI: India’s IT ministry has unlawfully expanded censorship powers to allow the easier removal of online content and empowered “countless” government officials to execute such orders, Elon Musk’s X has alleged in a new lawsuit against New Delhi.
The lawsuit and the allegations mark an escalation in an ongoing legal dispute between X and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government over how New Delhi orders content to be taken down. It also comes as Musk is getting closer to launching his other key ventures Starlink and Tesla in India.
In the new court filing dated March 5, X argues India’s IT Ministry is asking other departments to use a government website launched by the Ministry of Home Affairs last year to issue content blocking orders and mandate social media companies to join the website too.
This mechanism, X says, does not contain the stringent Indian legal safeguards on content removal that required such orders to be issued in cases such as harm to sovereignty or public order, and came with strict oversight of top officials.
India’s IT ministry redirected a media’s request for comment to the home affairs ministry, which did not respond.
The website creates “an impermissible parallel mechanism” that causes “unrestrained censorship of information in India”, X said, adding it is seeking to quash the directive.
X’s court papers are not public and were reported for the first time by media on Thursday.
The case was briefly heard earlier this week by a judge in the High Court of southern Karnataka state but no final decision was reached. It will now be heard on March 27.
In 2021, X, formerly called Twitter, was locked in a stand-off with the Indian government over non-compliance of legal orders to block certain tweets related to a farmers’ protest against government policies.
X later complied following public criticism by officials, but its legal challenge to the decision is continuing in Indian courts.
Meanwhile, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio signed a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring Starlink satellite internet services to India, a surprise move from the billionaires after being at odds for months over how the country should grant them spectrum.
India’s largest telecom operator will stock Starlink equipment in its retail stores, giving Starlink a direct distribution point in thousands of such outlets across the country.
Musk and Ambani had fought intensely over how airwaves should be assigned for satellite internet, with New Delhi finally siding with the allocation approach the US billionaire lobbied for.
Ambani’s Reliance had been concerned, opens new tab that Musk could dominate the telecom space once he launches his products, but the distribution deal will eventually see the Indian billionaire offering his rival’s products in the fast-growing market, while also competing with them.
“While it has been surprising, it’s a prudent strategy for Starlink to enter the India market and a win-win for all the parties involved earlier competing for the pie and now cooperating and sharing,” said Neil Shah, co-founder of research firm Counterpoint. The Reliance deal follows a similar partnership announcement between Starlink and India’s No. 2 telecom player Bharti Airtel, opens new tab a day before. Both the Airtel and Jio deals are conditional upon Starlink obtaining government approval to begin operations in the country.
