India calls X a 'habitual non-compliant platform' in latest court tussle
India's government has told a court that Elon Musk's X is a «habitual non-compliant platform» and for years has not followed many orders to remove content, undermining the government's role, according to a legal filing reviewed by Reuters.
The remarks were contained in an Aug. 24 non-public filing by India's IT ministry to the high court in the southern state of Karnataka, which is set to hear a challenge brought by the social media platform over a government fine in coming days.
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Formerly known as Twitter, X has an ongoing legal tussle with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration over what New Delhi alleges is non-compliance with content removal orders.
In June, Karnataka's High Court fined the platform 5 million rupees ($60,291) and said it had not complied with many blocking orders without any plausible explanation.
Twitter challenged that ruling to a higher bench in the court and argued New Delhi could be emboldened to block more content and broaden the scope of censorship.
In its 28-page filing, the IT ministry said X's challenge should be thrown out, arguing the company had in the past also unblocked some accounts — which government ordered to be blocked — without its knowledge.
By doing so, X undermined «the role of the government in a democratic setup», the filing
