New Delhi: The Global Government Affairs handle of the social media giant X has posted that it will appeal the Karnataka high court's order upholding the Union government's plans with the controversial Sahyog website, which it has called a "secretive online portal."

The Union home ministry disclosed the creation of Sahyog during the Delhi high court hearings of the case Shabana vs Govt Of NCT Of Delhi And Ors., after the court noted that there needs to be real-time interactions between internet intermediaries and law enforcement authorities in order to address urgent cases. An editorial on The Hindu had called it a "back door censor."

"X is deeply concerned by the recent order from the Karnataka court in India, which will allow millions of police officers to issue arbitrary takedown orders through a secretive online portal called the Sahyog. This new regime has no basis in the law, circumvents Section 69A of the IT Act, violates Supreme Court rulings, and infringes Indian citizens’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression," the Global Government Affairs handle said in a post.

The Karnataka high court on September 24, dismissed X's petition challenging the government's use of the Sahyog portal to facilitate orders to take down content. It had called it “an instrument of public good" and said that it "stands as a beacon of cooperation" between citizens and social media intermediaries.

"The Sahyog enables officers to order content removal based solely on allegations of “illegality,” without judicial review or due process for the speakers, and threatens platforms with criminal liability for non-compliance," the Global Government Affairs of X further said.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna had said as a part of the September 24 order that as a foreign corporation, X could not invoke India's constitutional protections for free speech.

The Global Government Affairs account noted that it disagreed with the court's view and believes it has the right to raise these concerns seeing that public discourse in India plays out over its platform. It wrote:

"X respects and complies with Indian law, but this order fails to address the core constitutional issues in our challenge and is inconsistent with the Bombay High Court's recent ruling that a similar regime was unconstitutional. We respectfully disagree with the view that we have no right to raise these concerns because of our incorporation abroad – X contributes significantly to public discourse in India and the voice of our users is at the heart of our platform. We will appeal this order to defend free expression."

X is the only major tech company which is not integrated with the Sahyog portal. Microsoft, Google, Meta, and LinkedIn are already present in it. In March, it had told the Delhi high court that it would not appear on the portal.

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