The Centre’s decision to block the X account of hate-crime tracker Hindutva Watch is “unjustified and disproportionate”, the social media platform has told the Delhi High Court, reported Bar and Bench on Saturday.

The submission came in response to a plea by Kashmiri journalist Raqib Hameed Naik.

Naik, who moved to the United States in 2020, founded Hindutva Watch in April 2021 as an independent research project to monitor reports of attacks on Muslims and marginalised communities by Hindutva groups in India.

On X, formerly Twitter, it regularly posted videos and news snippets about such violence.

X withheld the account in India in January in response to a legal demand from the Indian government. Hindutva Watch’s website has also been blocked in India.

The government order that led to the blocking of Hindutva Watch’s account said it had violated the Information Technology Act, 2000.

Under Section 69A of the Act, the Centre can send content removal requests to social media companies on the grounds of protecting national integrity and security, and ensuring friendly relations with foreign states, among other reasons.

X informed the Delhi High Court that it is willing to restore the account, reported Bar and Bench.

However, the social media platform also said that Hameed’s petition challenging the blocking of Hindutva Watch’s account was not maintainable against it, since it was only an intermediary and not part of the “State” as defined under Article 12 of the Constitution.

Article 12 defines the “State” as it appears in Part III of the Constitution, which deals with fundamental rights. The State includes the Government and Parliament of India, the government and legislature in each state, local authorities and authorities under the control of the central government.

X also said it had objected to the Centre’s blocking order against Hindutva Watch in January, arguing that the government’s claim that the account could “incite violence and disrupt public law” was without basis.

X also said that its request for a meeting with the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’s review committee in connection with the matter was not granted.

Naik in January told Scroll that the blocking of Hindutva Watch’s account was not surprising in view of “the ruling regime’s track record of suppressing critical voices”. He added: “This won’t deter us from our work, and we will continue undeterred.”

Last year, X also witheld the accounts of United States-based human rights organisations Indian American Muslim Council and Hindus for Human Rights in India in response to legal demands.

The Indian American Muslim Council had said it was informed by X about “a legal removal demand from the Government of India…that claims the following content violates India’s Information Technology Act, 2000”.

The organisation did not provide details on the content that X referred to.

Hindus for Human Rights said that X had offered no explanation for why this demand was made, “nor has it offered any opportunities for an inquiry or an appeal of this suspension”.

Also read:The near-impossible task of restoring a blocked Twitter handle in India