BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court dismissed Twitter's plea challenging the central government's directive to remove certain accounts and tweets. The court did not accept the request to stay the central order and imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh.

In July last year, Twitter approached the Karnataka High Court stating that the government directive was against freedom of expression. The high court had asked the central government why it did not specify the reason for blocking the accounts. It was demanded that transparency is required and the government should clarify the reason for withdrawing the accounts.

Twitter's former CEO, Jack Dorsey, had recently revealed that Twitter will be banned if it does not comply with the government's orders. The court order is coming during such a situation.

At the same time, the Center argued that foreign institutions cannot advocate for fundamental rights but Twitter claimed that foreign companies also have rights under Article 14.

The government is supposed to inform the respective account holders of the reason for the withdrawal of accounts. The company said that the government has prohibited them from informing the customers about it.