Twitter has sued the Indian govt to problem a few of its takedown orders, a supply aware of the topic informed TechCrunch, additional escalating the stress between the American social large and New Delhi.

In its lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Karnataka Prime Courtroom, Twitter alleges that New Delhi has abused its energy by means of ordering it to take away a number of tweets from its platform.

The lawsuit follows a coarse yr and a part for Twitter in India, a key in a foreign country marketplace for the company, the place it’s been requested to take down masses of accounts and tweets, lots of which critics argue had been objected as a result of they denounced the Indian govt’s insurance policies and Top Minister Narendra Modi.

Reuters first reported the lawsuit. A Twitter spokesperson declined to remark.

Twitter has in part complied with the requests, however sought to battle again lots of the demanding situations. Beneath India’s new IT laws, which went into impact final yr, Twitter has little to no room left to in my opinion problem the takedown orders.

The stress between the 2 was once obvious on Would possibly 24 final yr, when Delhi police, managed by means of India’s central govt, visited two workplaces of Twitter — within the nationwide capital state of Delhi and Gurgaon, within the neighboring state of Haryana — to hunt extra details about Twitter’s rationale to label one of the most tweets by means of ruling in part BJP spokesperson as “manipulated media.”

Delhi police mentioned it had won a criticism concerning the classification of the spokesperson’s tweet and visited the workplaces to serve Twitter India’s head a realize of the inquiry. In a remark, the police mentioned Twitter India’s managing director’s replies at the topic have been “very ambiguous.”

Twitter on the time described the episode as “intimidation.”

The corporate has “issues in the case of using intimidation techniques by means of the police in keeping with enforcement of our international Phrases of Carrier, in addition to with core components of the brand new IT Laws,” it mentioned.

Twitter India managing director resigned from the company final yr.

Twitter isn’t the primary tech large to sue the Indian govt. WhatsApp sued New Delhi final yr, difficult new laws that might permit government to make folks’s non-public messages “traceable,” and habits mass surveillance.

It’s unclear if the brand new lawsuit can have any have an effect on on Twitter’s proposed acquisition by means of Elon Musk. Musk’s Tesla has been making an attempt to go into the Indian marketplace for a number of years however needs the federal government to let it first promote and repair imported automobiles first.