Musk said that Twitter must comply with local laws in India. (FILLET)
Washington:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been locked in a court battle with Twitter over a failed takeover bid that Twitter now plans to push, said the social media giant has jeopardized its third-largest market by not disclosing the “risky” lawsuit against the Indian government. .
In a counterclaim filed in a Delaware court last Friday and made public on Thursday, Musk also claimed he was “deceived” into signing the deal to buy the San Francisco-based social media company.
Musk said that according to court documents, Twitter must comply with local laws in India. Snapshots of court documents were seen circulating on Twitter by New York Times Tech Correspondent Kate Conger.
“In 2021, India’s ministry of information technology put in place specific rules that allow the government to investigate social media posts, request credentials and prosecute companies that refuse to comply. While Musk is an advocate of free speech, moderation on Twitter must be “hew”. It’s close to the laws of the countries in which Twitter operates”, read part of the legal filings in the Twitter Vs Musk case, as published in a series of tweets by New York Times tech reporter Kate Conger.
Twitter said that Elon Musk “referred to the Court for its full and accurate content”. them on that basis.”
Citing a petition submitted to the Karnataka High Court in July, Musk also objected to Twitter’s failure to disclose the lawsuit against the Indian government.
“Twitter claims to have objected to certain blocking orders issued by the Indian government under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which directed Twitter to remove certain content from its platform, including content by politicians, activists and journalists, stating that Twitter is legal.” the company said in its response.
Twitter said through its attorney at the Karnataka High Court that their business in India will be shut down if they comply with the Indian government’s orders to block content deemed illegal by the authorities. The Supreme Court sent a notice to the Center and postponed the hearing to 25 August.
The microblogging site and the world’s richest man will stand trial on October 17 after Musk tried to back out of a deal to buy Twitter, saying the site’s fake accounts were misrepresented.
Twitter forces Musk to follow the deal, accusing him of sabotaging it as it no longer serves its own interests.
Earlier in April, Musk signed an acquisition agreement with Twitter for $54.20 per share in a transaction valued at approximately $44 billion.
In May, Musk suspended the deal to allow his team to review the veracity of Twitter’s claim that less than 5 percent of accounts on the platform were bots or spam.
(Apart from the headline, this news was not edited by NDTV employees and was published from a joint broadcast.)