New Delhi: Twitter on Thursday, October 27, submitted to the Karnataka high court that Union government orders to block certain Twitter handles and posts should contain reasons for the same to be communicated to users of the microblogging site.The submissions came during the hearing of a plea by the social media giant challenging ten blocking orders issued by the Union government between February 2021 and February 2022. Advocate Ashok Haranahalli, representing Twitter, submitted that reasons for the blocking order must be provided to users so they can determine whether or not they want to challenge said orders. Further, the advocate argued that if they are not provided, there is a possibility that reasons could be manufactured after the fact.“To say, ‘I will not record reasons and communicate’ will go against the safeguard itself. It is provided so persons affected can go to court and challenge,” Bar and Bench quoted Haranahalli as saying.Meanwhile, Justice Krishna S. Dixit, hearing the case, observed that, “Maturity level of a section of society is not up to the mark. A section of people believe whatever comes,” according to news agency PTI.Haranahalli concluded his submissions in the case during the hearing, following which additional solicitor general (ASG) M.B. Nargund sought time to prepare the Union government’s response. With that, Justice Dixit adjourned the matter until the next hearing, slated for November 16.Also read: Govt Asked To Block Accounts Of Those Tweeting On Farmers’ Protest, COVID Response: Twitter To HCChallenging the blocking orders, Twitter’s July 5 petition contended that several blocking orders were “procedurally or substantively deficient of the provision” and “demonstrate excessive use of powers and are disproportionate”.Twitter also claimed that the MEITY had sent it a letter threatening consequences for failing to comply with the blocking orders, such as criminal proceedings against the company’s chief compliance officer and the stripping away of Twitter’s safe harbour immunity, available to social media intermediaries under Section 79(1) of the Act.Further, in a previous hearing, Twitter’s counsel argued that the company was asked to block entire accounts, although Section 69A of the IT Act does not permit blocking of the whole account. It only permits to block information, or a particular tweet, under the section of the Act.It argued that the Union government’s direction to block whole accounts will affect its business, adding that several prominent persons have their accounts on the platform.Twitter reportedly received over 1,100 blocking orders from the Union government but moved court against only 39 of them, according to the Bar and Bench report.A day after the present hearing, Tesla founder Elon Musk completed his $44 billion takeover of the microblogging platform and immediately sacked four of its top executives, including CEO Parag Agarwal, with whom Musk had had public arguments online.After Musk’s takeover was formalised, the Union government noted that it would not change its expectation that Twitter would comply with India’s regulations for social media ‘intermediaries’, as the government calls them, adding that new IT Rules will be out within days.“Our rules and laws for intermediaries remain the same regardless of who owns the platforms,” said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s minister of state for electronics and information technology. “So, the expectation of compliance with Indian laws and rules remains.”