Washington: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has been embroiled in a legal battle with Twitter over a failed takeover bid that Twitter now plans to enforce, said the social media giant had put its third-largest market at risk by failing to to reveal “dangerous” litigation against the Indian government. . In a counterclaim in a Delaware court, which was filed under seal last Friday and made public Thursday, Musk also claimed he was “coddled” into signing the deal to buy the San Francisco-based social networking company. Musk said Twitter should follow local laws in India, according to court documents. Screenshots of the court documents were seen circulating on Twitter posted by New York Times Tech Reporter Kate Conger. “In 2021, India’s information technology ministry imposed some rules that allow the government to investigate social media posts, demand identifying information and prosecute companies that refuse to comply. While Musk is an advocate for free speech, believes that moderation on Twitter should be close to the laws of the countries in which Twitter operates,” read part of the legal filings in Twitter’s lawsuit against Musk, as published by New York Times tech reporter Kate Conger in a series of tweets. To Elon Musk’s denunciations of the court filings, Twitter responded that it “respectfully refers the Court for its full and accurate content. Twitter does not have sufficient knowledge or information to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations” and said that ” therefore denied on that basis’. Referring to a petition filed in the Karnataka High Court in July, Musk also objected to Twitter’s failure to disclose the lawsuit against the Indian government. “Twitter claims it has challenged certain blocking orders issued by the Indian government under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, which directs Twitter to remove certain content from its platform, including content from politicians, activists and journalists, and that Twitter is legit.” the company said in its response. Twitter, through its lawyer at the Karnataka High Court, said its business in India would be shut down if it complied with Indian government orders to block content that authorities had deemed illegal. The Supreme Court had issued notices to the Center and adjourned the hearing to August 25. The microblogging site and the world’s richest man are now headed to trial on October 17 after Musk tried to back out of his deal to buy Twitter over what he says was falsely presenting fake accounts on the site. Twitter is trying to force Musk to follow through on the deal, accusing him of sabotaging it because it no longer served its interests. Earlier in April, Musk reached a buyout deal with Twitter at $54.20 per share in a deal valued at about $44 billion. In May, Musk put the deal on hold to allow his team to review the veracity of Twitter’s claim that fewer than 5 percent of accounts on the platform are bots or spam. (Other than the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published by a syndicated feed.)
