Over the past year, Twitter has received demands from Indian authorities to take action regarding content from accounts that encourage an independent Sikh state, posts that are asserted to have dispersed false information about farmer protests, and tweets that are vital to the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to an insider who knows the situation, Twitter sought an Indian court on Tuesday to reverse some government orders to remove content from the social media site in a legal challenge claiming authorities abused their authority. The American company’s move to have the directives judicially reviewed is a part of a broader spat with New Delhi.

Twitter denied taking the content down

An inquiry from Reuters for comment received no response from the IT ministry. The Indian government has claimed that despite being in compliance with the law, major social media companies like Twitter have refused to remove content.

The IT ministry warned Twitter late last month, threatening legal action if it disobeyed some directives. According to the source, Twitter agreed this week in order to maintain the responsibility exemptions offered as a host of material. Twitter claimed that some removal orders did not follow the minimum standards of India’s IT laws in a file with the top court in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, the source said, without indicating which ones it wanted to be examined.

“Be it any company, in any sector, they should abide by the laws of India,” India’s IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated on Tuesday, responding to questions about Twitter’s legal move.