Farmers’ stir, Covid-19: Karnataka HC fines Twitter Rs. 50 lakhs, rejects its claims

Virendra Pandit

New Delhi: The Karnataka High Court on Friday dismissed global microblogging platform Twitter’s plea against the Union Ministry of Information Technology’s order to block its content about the farmers’ agitation and the pandemic and directed it to pay a fine of Rs. 50 lakhs.

“You are not a farmer but a billion-dollar company,” the court told Twitter for not complying with the Centre’s orders.

Recently, Twitter’s former co-founder Jack Dorsey claimed that the platform was “under pressure” in India. However, the current owner, Elon Musk, had admitted that a company must follow the rules of the country it is in.

Under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, the Centre or its agency can ask intermediaries (in this case Twitter) to block any content from public access.

“Your client (Twitter) was given notices but it did not comply. Punishment for non-compliance is seven years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. That also did not deter your client. So, you have not given any reason why you delayed compliance, more than a year of delay…then all of sudden you comply and approach the Court. You are not a farmer but a billion-dollar company,” said the court.

The Centre told the High Court in March that the Constitution’s Article 19 providing freedom of speech does not apply to Twitter for it is a foreign entity.

The Centre had asked Twitter to take down tweets related to the farmers’ protests and the coronavirus, prompting the company to allege the directions “demonstrate excessive use of power.”

The Centre in June issued a notice to Twitter that if it fails to take down the tweets it will lose safe harbor immunity under Section 79(1) of the IT Act.

Twitter then moved the High Court saying it could not be directed to block user accounts and silence freedom of speech. It also noted that Section 69A does not entail the mass blocking of accounts