Elon Musk's X has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government, denounced content illegally censored on the platform.
Washington Post Report Elon Musk's X filed a lawsuit against the Indian government earlier this month, and the lawsuit was made public on Thursday. The company claims last year the Indian government created a “censorship portal” that would allow government agencies, state authorities and tens of thousands of local police officers to issue large numbers of takedown orders. X claims this is a violation of both India's constitution and information technology law.
The lawsuit states, “This leads to important censorship and illegal blocking of legal information on the X platform. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has refused to comment on the issue.
The timing of the lawsuit is particularly sensitive as Elon Musk seeks new economic opportunities in India. Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing increased pressure from the Trump administration over trade and immigration issues. “This is no longer a single, simple question regarding the interpretation of a particular section of the law. It's a bigger geopolitical issue,” said Shashank Reddy, managing partner at Evam Law & Policy, which focuses on Tech.
India has been increasing control over online representation during Modi's tenure due to relatively little resistance from American social media companies. “This is the first offensive and clear action by US engineers in the past two years regarding the degraded censorship and digital authoritarian situation in India,” said Raman Chima, Asia's policy director for Digital Rights Group Access Now.
The lawsuit cited hundreds of takedown requests from the Ministry of Railways in February, in part related to stampedes made on train platforms during Kumbh Mela, a major Hindu pilgrimage. The incident embarrassssssssing Modi's Hindu nationalist government. This was following similar tragedy in the past, promised new safety measures this year.
The lawsuit comes amid continuing trade negotiations between India and the US, with New Delhi hoping to avoid the new tariffs promised by President Donald Trump on April 2.
During Modi's visit to Washington in February, he met with Musk and soon Tesla secured a deal in a new showroom in India, with the two largest carriers in the country announced a deal with Starlink, the satellite telecom company for masks. However, some Indian corporate elites have expressed skepticism about the domestic Musk ambitions.
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Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News, which covers the issues of freedom of speech and online censorship.
