In a legal battle with Twitter, Elon Musk’s revelation about the Indian government

Washington:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is locked in a legal battle with Twitter over a failed takeover bid that Twitter now intends to force through, says the social media giant has jeopardized his Third Market by failing to disclose “risky” litigation against the Indian government. .

In a countersuit in Delaware court that was filed under seal last Friday and made public Thursday, Musk also claimed he was “tricked” into signing the deal to buy the San-based social media company. Francisco.

Musk said Twitter should follow local law in India, according to court documents. Snapshots of the court documents were seen circulating on Twitter, posted by New York Times tech reporter Kate Conger.

“In 2021, India’s Ministry of Information Technology imposed certain rules allowing the government to probe social media posts, demand credentials and prosecute companies that have refused to comply. that Musk is a supporter of free speech, he believes moderation on Twitter should be “close to the laws of the countries in which Twitter operates,” read part of the legal documents 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 claims in court filings, Twitter responded that it “respectfully refers to the Court for complete and accurate content. Twitter lacks sufficient knowledge or information to form an opinion as to the veracity of the allegations”, and stated that he “therefore denies them on this basis.”

Referring to a petition filed with the Karnataka High Court in July, Musk also objected to Twitter’s refusal to disclose the disputes against the Indian government.

“Twitter claims it challenged certain blocking orders issued by the Indian government under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, ordering Twitter to remove certain content from its platform, including content from politicians, activists and journalists, and that Twitter is legal,” the company said in its response.

Twitter, through its attorney in the Karnataka High Court, said its business in India would shut down if it complied with orders from the Indian government to block content that relevant authorities deemed illegal. The High Court had sent notices to the Center and adjourned the hearing until August 25.

The microblogging website and the world’s richest man will now go to trial on October 17 after Musk sought to drop his deal to acquire Twitter over what he says was a misrepresentation of fake accounts on the site.

Twitter is trying to coerce Musk into following through on the deal while accusing him of sabotaging it because it no longer served their interests.

Earlier in April, Musk reached an acquisition deal with Twitter at $54.20 per share in a deal valued at around $44 billion.

In May, Musk suspended the deal to allow his team to examine the veracity of Twitter’s claim that less than 5% of accounts on the platform are bots or spam.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)