Journalist & Founder Of 'The New Indian' Aarti Tikoo Moves Delhi High Court Challenging Twitter's Decision To Lock Her Account

Journalist and Founder of 'The New Indian' Aarti Tikoo has moved the Delhi High Court challenging Twitter Inc's decision to lock her account. It is Tikoo's case that she had posted a tweet for calling out the actions of 'Kashmiri Islamists' on Twitter for threatening her cousin.

According to the plea, on December 14, 2021, Tikoo's cousin participated in a Twitter Space discussion wherein he was called an 'Indian Agent' and other allegations were made against him. 

Thereafter the next day, the following tweet was posted by her:

"My brother who lives in Srinagar, being openly threatened by jihadi terrorists sitting in Kashmir-India & their handlers in Pakistan, UK & US. Is anyone watching? Are we sitting ducks waiting to be shot dead by Islamists or will you crackdown on them?"

Twitter had then locked her account the same day.

Referring to the transcripts of the threats issued to her cousin on Twitter, Tikoo has stated in the petition that Twitter's action of locking her account is violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 inasmuch as it is an impairment of her right to free speech and is arbitrary.

"Furthermore, there is no provision under which content can be edited or modified before transmission suo-motu by an intermediary like the Respondent No.2. In other words, there is no sanction for this action under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the latest the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 made thereunder," the plea adds.

Accordingly, the plea seeks quashing of Twitter's decision of locking her account apart from deletion of the said tweet.

Title: Aarti Tikoo v. UOI & Anr.