Elon Musks’ X Moves Court Challenging Sahyog Portal and IT Act

Social media platform X Corp owned by Elon Musk has moved the Karnataka High Court challenging the Central government's creation and use of the "Sahyog" portal, and the Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act). 

The Sahyog portal is an online platform that allows agencies to issue orders to block information.
The petition raise allegation that the Sahyog portal and related government actions bypass the statutory framework established by the IT Act while mentioning the landmark Supreme Court judgment in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India case. 

As per reports,  the petition was filed in response to multiple take down orders of posts that are issued by the Union Ministry of Railways in the aftermath of the recent New Delhi Railway Station stampede.

The case briefly came up for hearing before Justice M Nagaprasanna on March 17. It will now be heard by the Court on March 27.

The company has also raised several critical concerns about government's use of Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act to issue information-blocking orders. X says that this provision, which exempts intermediaries from liability for third-party content, is misused for creating an unlawful parallel mechanism for blocking information.

The plea says that Section 79(3)(b) does not authorise the government to issue information-blocking orders. Such powers are governed by Section 69A of the IT Act, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in Shreya Singhal, provided safeguards are adhered to.

X alleged that the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has directed central and state government agencies, and local police officers, to issue information-blocking orders under Section 79(3)(b), bypassing  the process under Section 69A. X also alleges that MeitY has also provided a "template blocking order" to facilitate these actions, which stands  in violation of the Supreme Court's ruling.

It has also challenged the creation of the Sahyog Portal by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which allows central and state agencies to issue blocking orders under Section 79(3)(b).