NEW DELHI: Social media platform X Corp told the Delhi High Court on Friday, November 6, that takedown notices targeting the accounts of digital rights organisations Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) were sent by an impostor and not by Delhi Police.
The submission was made before Justice Amit Mahajan during a hearing on petitions filed by the two organisations challenging the notices. X's counsel said an internal investigation had established that the requests were fraudulent and that the company had filed a complaint with Delhi Police. X also assured the court that the organisations' accounts would not be taken down. The court subsequently disposed of the petitions.
The controversy began after the organisations received notifications from X about takedown requests purportedly issued by Delhi Police. The notices alleged that their posts were defamatory towards the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and invoked Section 356 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with criminal defamation.
According to SFLC, the first notice, dated October 31, identified two posts. A second notice, dated November 2, listed 42 URLs, including the entire X accounts of IFF, SFLC and Geo Blocked in India, along with posts by other users.
The second notice reportedly invoked provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the Information Technology Rules, 2021, seeking the removal or blocking of the identified content.
SFLC questioned the authenticity of the notices after emails sent to the addresses mentioned in them reportedly bounced back. It also approached Delhi Police's Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit to verify whether the notices had been officially issued.
The organisation further raised concerns about X's verification process for law enforcement requests, alleging that the platform initially lacked an effective mechanism to authenticate the identity of requesters.
The dispute also followed a legal notice received by the organisations on October 29 from an individual claiming to represent the RSS. The notice reportedly objected to their work documenting online censorship and government content-blocking directions.
While X has now described the takedown requests as fraudulent, the identity of the person behind them remains unclear.
with inputs from livelaw and BarandBench