A protracted dispute over the censorship of short Internet posts between Twitter and the Indian government is continuing in court.
The American technology company is resisting the numerous orders with which New Delhi is taking action against critical voices on the Internet.
Till Fähnders
Political correspondent for Southeast Asia.
Follow I follow
Most recently, the government had requested the deletion of various posts and the blocking of dozens of user accounts by Monday of this week.
The company has complied, but is taking action before the Supreme Court of the Indian state of Karnataka, according to Indian press reports.
As a result, the American company accuses the government of "excessive exercise of its power".
The demands are "too broad and arbitrary".
The number of deletion requests has increased
The reports did not reveal exactly what type of posts and user accounts were affected by the orders.
In the past 12 months, the Indian authorities have inter alia taken action against content related to the Sikh independence movement, the months of farmer protests and the government's pandemic measures.
Last week, the company was asked to block tweets by the American organization Freedom House, which cited India as an example of countries where freedom of the press is on the decline.
There is increasing concern that the government is restricting freedom of expression and silencing critics with the deletion requests.
According to Twitter, in the first half of 2022 India was the country with the fourth most deletion requests worldwide.
The number has increased significantly since the government reformed the law in 2021, giving itself additional powers to crack down on social media posts that are seen as a threat to national security, for example.
The Indian government is threatening criminal penalties if Twitter does not comply with the demands.
Twitter, for example, complains that while the government objects to specific posts, it doesn't explain why it thinks they're breaking the law.