Elon Musk’s X ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Karnataka High Court’s Order On Sahyog Portal

Elon Musk’s X will challenge a Karnataka High Court ruling, which gives government officials the authority to issue information blocking orders via the Sahyog portal. 

The US-based company said that it is “deeply concerned” by the order and claimed that it will restrict the freedom of speech and expression of Indian citizens.

“X is deeply concerned by the recent order from the Karnataka court in India, which will allow millions of police officers to issue arbitrary takedown orders through a secretive online portal called the Sahyog.”

“This new regime has no basis in the law, circumvents Section 69A of the IT Act, violates Supreme Court rulings, and infringes Indian citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression,” the company said on X via its Global Government Affairs page.

The Karnataka High Court, on Sept. 24, rejected the petition filed by X. The plea had challenged the takedown orders issued by both Central and State authorities under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, which mandated the removal of certain content from X.

X emphasised that it respects and complies with Indian law, “but this order fails to address the core constitutional issues in our challenge and is inconsistent with the Bombay High Court's recent ruling that a similar regime was unconstitutional.”

The social media giant, in its post, said that it would challenge this ruling. “We respectfully disagree with the view that we have no right to raise these concerns because of our incorporation abroad—X contributes significantly to public discourse in India and the voice of our users is at the heart of our platform. We will appeal this order to defend free expression.”

“The Sahyog enables officers to order content removal based solely on allegations of ‘illegality,’ without judicial review or due process for the speakers, and threatens platforms with criminal liability for non-compliance,” the company added.

In that landmark decision, the apex court had upheld the constitutionality of Section 69A of the IT Act, which empowers authorities to block information, provided several procedural safeguards are followed.

The court also dismissed X’s argument that the directives issued under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act conflicted with the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Shreya Singhal case. 

Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw endorsed the Karnataka High Court’s ruling on X.