‘Deeply concerned’: X says it will appeal against Karnataka HC order upholding Sahyog portal

Social media platform X on Monday stated that it was “deeply concerned” by the Karnataka High Court’s recent order dismissing its challenge to the Sahyog portal set up by the Union government.

X added that it will appeal against the order to “defend free expression”.

Sahyog is a portal set up by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre to “streamline” orders to take down content. X has described it as a “censorship portal” and claimed that the Information Technology Act does not contain any provision to create such a portal, or to require social platforms to appoint a nodal officer for it.

On September 24, the High Court upheld the portal’s validity and stressed the need for regulatory oversight of social media platforms operating in India, highlighting that “social media as a modern amphitheatre of ideas cannot be left in a state of anarchic freedom”.

The platform stated on Monday that the order “will allow millions of police officers to issue arbitrary takedown orders through a secretive online portal”.

X claimed that “this new regime has no basis in the law” and “infringes Indian citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression”.

“X respects and complies with Indian law, but this order fails to address the core constitutional issues in our challenge and is inconsistent with...

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