We missed this earlier: After nearly six months of detailed hearings, the Karnataka High Court reserved orders in Twitter's challenge to the Indian government's blocking orders for 39 Twitter URLs last Friday. The Court is on summer vacation from today until May 20th. A refresher: "Reserved orders" means that the court will give its judgment or verdict on the issue at a later date, and not immediately after the hearings conclude. Why it matters: The verdict may decisively lay out whether foreign companies like Twitter can challenge Indian laws on fundamental rights grounds. It'll also flesh out whether doing so violates a company's safe harbour—or a platform's protection from being held liable for third-party content it hosts. Remember: safe harbour protections apply provided the platform follows the rules and regulations set out for it by the Indian government. Tell me about this case? Last monsoon, Twitter challenged 39 blocking orders issued by the Indian government under Section 69A of the Information and Technology Act, 2000. In plain speak, Twitter thought the orders were arbitrarily blocking content on its platform, and didn't follow the correct legal procedure under Section 69A while doing so. This impacted the free speech rights of its "citizen-users" in India—so, it filed a suit on their behalf at the Karnataka High Court. The Indian government wasn't amused, arguing in its reply that Twitter couldn't file fundamental rights challenges as it was a foreign company. Twitter cannot act as an "arbiter of free speech" online by filing the challenge, as doing…
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Karnataka HC Reserves Orders In Twitter-Government Standoff Over Blocking of 39 URLs Under Section 69A
The verdict may decisively lay out whether foreign companies like Twitter can challenge Indian laws on fundamental rights grounds.
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