Twitter challenged the Indian government’s order to block content on its social media page in court, local media reported on Wednesday, citing legal documents.
The lawsuit is the latest showdown between Twitter and Indian authorities, who are accused of silencing criticism both online and offline.
In the case, filed in a Bangalore court, the social media giant claimed that the basis on which multiple accounts and content were flagged by the government was either “exaggerated and arbitrary” and “disproportionate,” Indian Express daily reported .
The social media giant filed a complaint with the Karnataka state high court that the ministry had failed to prove how some of the content it wanted to remove violated IT rules, the newspaper quoted sources as saying.
Last week, Twitter confirmed that India had targeted local censorship accounts and dozens of posts, including some talking about diminishing internet freedom in the world’s largest democracy.
Others were accounts run by the government of Pakistan, prompting an angry response from Islamabad.
Twitter and the Indian government declined to comment on the court case.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has in recent years sought more control over social media content in India, where Twitter has over 20 million users.
When massive anti-government peasant protests took place in India last year, Twitter was ordered to delete dozens of accounts for supporting the demonstrations.
But the US company reinstated them, angering the government.
An Indian climate activist was also arrested on sedition charges in February 2021 for helping edit a protest “toolkit” tweeted by Greta Thunberg.
New Delhi has accused Twitter of intentionally ignoring new IT rules that came into force in May 2021.
In the same month, police paid a visit to their offices in the country after a tweet by a spokesman for Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party was described on the platform as “manipulated media”.
Shortly before, the government ordered Twitter and Facebook to remove dozens of posts criticizing Modi’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
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