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Elon Musk X says India expanded censorship power - court

filing

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X's filing says officers can ask for removal without

safeguards

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India has had strained relations with X in the past

By Arpan Chaturvedi and Munsif Vengattil

NEW DELHI, March 20 (Reuters) - 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 Reuters' 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.