Institute of Legal and Management Studies

Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has announced that it will appeal against the Karnataka High Court's judgment, which dismissed its challenge to the Union Government's recently-launched Sahyog portal, which is used to automate notices to intermediaries to remove unlawful online content.

In a post on Monday, Global Affairs X stated that the company respectfully disagrees with the High Court's ruling. It said the platform intends to pursue appellate remedies.

Last week, a Single Bench of the Karnataka High Court declined to interfere with the Centre's Sahyog portal. 'X' has refused to onboard the Sahyog Portal, contending that it was a parallel mechanism to issue blocking orders, circumventing the procedural safeguards under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

"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 social media platform said.

"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," it added.

X said that the Karnataka High Court's judgment was inconsistent with the Bombay High Court's ruling which struck down the 'Fact Check Unit' established by the Central Government. It also disagreed with the High Court's view that a foreign company cannot invoke Article 19(1)(a)

"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."

In a judgment rendered on September 24, 2025, the Karnataka High Court dismissed X Corp's challenge to the Centre's Sahyog portal and government-issued content blocking orders. The petitioner had sought a declaration that Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act does not permit central government officers to issue blocking orders without following the procedure under Section 69A and the accompanying rules. The Court rejected this contention, holding that social media is not exempt from regulation and that speech, while protected, is subject to reasonable restrictions. Justice M. Nagaprassana emphasized that unregulated speech, under the guise of liberty, can lead to “license to lawlessness,” and asserted that regulation is necessary to preserve the balance between freedom and order.

On the Sahyog portal specifically, the Court upheld its constitutionality. It characterized the portal as an instrument of “public good,” created under the authority of Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act and Rule 3(b) of the 2021 Rules, to facilitate cooperation between intermediaries and the State in tackling unlawful content. X had argued that compelling intermediaries to monitor and remove content under Sahyog undermines the Supreme Court's ruling in Shreya Singhal, but the Karnataka Court held that the 2011 regime addressed in Shreya Singhal is now supplanted by the newer 2021 Rules and must be interpreted on its own terms.