Elon Musk’s X sues Indian government over content regulation

Elon Musk’s social media platform, X (formerly Twitter), has on Thursday March 20, 2025, filed lawsuit in the Karnataka High Court against the Indian government.

The suit filed by X is challenging Indians content regulation practices.

India, the world’s largest democracy, is one of the top five countries globally that frequently request social media content takedowns.

This latest lawsuit is part of X’s continued battle against what it calls excessive censorship by Indian authorities.

At the centre of the case is a legal provision that the Indian government relies on to issue blocking orders.

However, X argues that this provision is being misused to bypass existing safeguards meant to prevent arbitrary content removal.

According to Bar and Bench, an Indian legal news website, the lawsuit claims that the provision has created an “unlawful parallel mechanism” for controlling online content.

The case has been brought before a court in Karnataka, where a hearing is set for March 27.

An earlier hearing this week failed to reach a conclusion.

This is not the first time X has had a legal tussle with the Indian government.

In 2023, an Indian court fined the platform $61,000 after dismissing its appeal against an order to remove tweets and accounts that were critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.

Almost a year later, X confirmed that its appeal against the government blocking orders remains unresolved.

“Consistent with our position, a write appeal challenging the Indian government’s blocking orders remains pending. We have also provided the impacted users with notice of these actions in accordance with our policies,” X stated in February 2024.

The company also raised concerns over the lack of transparency surrounding these government directives.

“Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency. This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making,” the company said.

The outcome of the lawsuit is expected to have significant implications for social media regulation in India, especially as Musk’s other ventures, such as Starlink and Tesla, prepare to enter the Indian market.

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