Why is X suing the Indian government as Musk woos Modi?

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO presented India’s prime minister with a gift and introduced him to his family in Washington, DC, in February. Modi described the event as being “very good.”

Modi visited Donald Trump and visited the US. According to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Modi and Musk discussed cooperating in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), space exploration, innovation, and sustainable development.

However, almost a month later, Musk’s social media platform X sued the Indian government, alleging that New Delhi was censoring online content in violation of the law.

The lawsuit comes as Tesla and Starlink are getting closer to being launched in India.

Why, then, is X suing India in a manner similar to how Musk is trying to charm Modi?

Why is X suing the Indian government?

In a lawsuit filed on March 5 in the state of Karnataka in South India, X claims that the Indian government is using “an impermissible parallel mechanism” to block online content and gives government officials and ministries the authority to remove it without violating the country’s Information Technology Act.

The Indian IT ministry is authorized to remove online content that is considered harmful to the country’s national security and “public decorum,” according to Section 69A of the country’s IT Act, which was passed in October 2000. However, this request must be made through a legal process under which the ministry of electronics and information technology (MEITY) must approve the removal of online content. MeitY evaluates the content before deciding whether to censor it.

The Indian government has now developed a new process for deleting content, known as Section 79 (3) (b), which has a distinct blocking procedure.

Online content can be removed under section 79 (3) (b) with the exception of a straightforward notification from a government official. Without the use of any judicial review, users can send notices to remove content through the government’s “Sahyog” (which means cooperation in English) portal.

Social media companies like X are required to sign up for the Sahyog portal by the Indian government, but the platform claims that doing so will lead to “arbitrary censorship.”

The Sahyog portal’s new legal censorship authority does not include requirements for a designated officer to submit a request for censorship to the central government, according to the organization. Apar Gupta, a lawyer and co-founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation, told Al Jazeera that any government department can now designate an officer who can take down requests, as the country’s railway ministry did earlier this year when it issued an order to remove more than 200 videos related to a stampede that took place in New Delhi in February.

The government has taken an illegal step by using the parallel censorship system. In this situation, Gupta added, “There is merit to the claim that X made.”

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a former member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), told Indian News International, “India is a country where the law applies to everyone.” X has a legal right to file a lawsuit.

Indian media reports on March 20 revealed X’s case against the government, and the next hearing will be held on March 27 at the Karnataka High Court.

Al Jazeera has contacted India’s ruling BJP party and the IT ministry for comment.

Is this case motivated by X’s chatbot controversy?

It doesn’t appear to be. The X lawsuit predates this claim even though MeitY’s internal media have been informed that it is speaking with X about Grok 3 generated by the social media platform’s in-built chatbot.

Grok has created content and responses to users’ questions that the ruling BJP government views as “abusive and controversial” in recent weeks in India.

Prime Minister Modi’s interview responses “frequently seem scripted,” the chatbot replied when one X user “asked” Grok if his responses were scripted. “Modi’s interviews often seem scripted; his responses are polished, on-message, and rarely stray from the narrative.” He has a strong media strategy since 2014, and he has a PR machine that uses social media and controlled environments to define his image. real impromptu experiences? “Almost nonexistent”

According to Gupta, there is a high level of self-censorship in India as well as a rise in what is known as digital authoritarianism, where many people don’t feel free to say what they want to say. Grok allows them to ask questions critical of the union government, particularly the prime minister, and the chatbot responds by using a data stream, which includes articles from Wikipedia and other news articles, in a friendly and conversational manner.

“But at its very core, people need to understand that Grok is primarily AI that has been trained in public services, and that what it claims may reflect false information and have biases,” he continued.

There is no connection between the Grok responses creating a viral trend and the case being filed. The only connection is that MeitY, a government ministry, is involved, he added.

What does this mean for Indian X users?

Gupta said it is too early to predict the country’s X users’ reaction to the case’s outcome.

Users in India have always expressed dissatisfaction with large social media platforms, according to the government. The government frequently breaks constitutional restrictions and engages in censorship for political reasons, which is the cause of this. Therefore, any platform pushback ultimately benefits the advancement of free speech, which is extremely important in closed societies where there is a high level of censorship, he said.

“But in this case, X also has a historical issue of not being more transparent about its content moderation practices, and X has stopped reporting government requests for takedowns that were previously submitted prior to Musk’s takeover. In any case, he continued, “X is definitely not a model corporate actor.”

Will Musk’s chances in India be harmed by the X lawsuit?

According to experts, it is unlikely. According to Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at The Wilson Center, a think tank based in Washington, DC, Musk has “a lot of leverage” in India thanks to his wealth and the investment capital he has available to work in high-growth sectors like renewables and telecoms.

Trump has also appointed Elon Musk to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which oversees the US government, and he has announced drastic job cuts and claimed to have discovered billions of dollars in government waste and fraud.

His kinship with Trump “ups this leverage even more.” He therefore has a lot of leeway to choose what he wants, without fear of alienating New Delhi. He claimed that he can dangle Starlink and Tesla while also upholding his “free speech absolutism” on social media. He&nbsp, has discussions with others and has already entered agreements with Indian telecom companies to offer Starlink services. Tesla’s construction on a base in the nation is also in progress.

He predicted that this suit will have little effect on overall US-India ties. This X spat is “a blip at best and a nuisance at worst,” according to the various ways that cooperation is carried out in the relationship and given the goodwill it exhibits. Not to mention that the enormous Indian market is “too appealing to leave” he continued.

Source: Aljazeera