Musk's X calls compliance website a 'censorship tool', faces backlash from India

NEW DELHI: Elon Musk's X has been criticised by India for wrongly labelling as a "censorship portal" an official website that allows tech companies to be notified about harmful online content, Reuters reviewed court papers showed on Friday. 

The lawsuit marks an escalation in a legal dispute between X and the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over how it orders content to be taken down, at a time when Musk nears the launch in India of his other key ventures, Starlink and Tesla.

The comments came in a rejoinder to X's new lawsuit filed on March 5 in the southern state of Karnataka seeking to quash the government's website initiative.

"The use of the said terminology by a worldwide portal like X is unfortunate and condemnable," the information technology ministry told the court, adding that the company was raising a "groundless concern of censorship".

The ministry, whose statement to the court on March 27 is not public, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Modi's government says the new website was intended only to swiftly notify tech companies of their due diligence obligations and no blocking orders were issued.

X says India has unlawfully expanded its censorship powers to allow easier removal of online content, giving "countless" government officials the power to execute such orders through the website it described as a "censorship portal".