X, formerly Twitter, will challenge a Karnataka High Court decision that upholds the Indian government's controversial Sahyog portal, marking the latest escalation in the ongoing battle between the social media platform and India's content regulation framework.

"We will appeal this order to defend free expression," X said in a post on the platform.

The Karnataka High Court on September 24, 2025, dismissed X's petition challenging the government's use of the Sahyog portal for content takedown orders, dealing a significant blow to the platform's efforts to contest what it terms "arbitrary censorship" in one of its most important global markets.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna then ruled that X, as a foreign corporation, cannot invoke India's constitutional protections for free speech.

What is Sahyog portal?

The Sahyog portal, launched in October 2024 by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs through the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), serves as a centralised platform for government agencies to issue content takedown notices to social media platforms.

Operating under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the system allows authorised officials to directly request the removal of content deemed unlawful.

Since its inception, the portal has facilitated 130 content takedown notices to major platforms, including Google, YouTube, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, between October 2024 and April 2025.

The system currently connects 65 online intermediaries with state and central government agencies, streamlining the process of combating what authorities describe as unlawful online content.

Reading the judgment

Justice Nagaprasanna's 351-page judgment addressed several critical constitutional questions raised by X's challenge.

The court firmly established that Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and expression, applies exclusively to Indian citizens, not foreign corporations operating in the country.

"Article 19 of the Constitution of India, noble in its spirit and luminous in its promise, remains, nevertheless, a Charter of Rights conferred upon citizens only," the judge stated, emphasising that X lacks constitutional standing to challenge Indian laws on free speech grounds.

The ruling distinguished between constitutional rights available to all persons (Articles 14 and 21) versus those restricted to citizens (Article 19), preventing X from circumventing this limitation by invoking equality provisions. The court also noted that X operates as a "faceless" entity in India without legal incorporation or established offices in the country.

Elon Musk’s platform and selective compliance

The Karnataka HC more or less called out X's selective compliance with content regulations across different jurisdictions. X complies with takedown requests in the United States under legislation like the Take It Down Act, but it resists similar orders in India.

Currently, X is the only major tech giant not integrated properly with the Sahyog portal. Giants like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and LinkedIn have already integrated with the Sahyog portal since its launch.

The latest announcement from X to fight the HC order sets the stage for an apex court review of the content regulation frameworks. This means that it will now be up to the Supreme Court of India.