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X (Formerly Twitter) Sues Indian Government Over Expanded Censorship Powers

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In a new escalation of its legal dispute with India’s government, X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has filed a lawsuit against the Indian Ministry of Information Technology (IT). The platform argues that the government’s expansion of censorship powers has unlawfully facilitated easier content removal, giving “countless” officials the authority to block online content without adequate legal safeguards.

The lawsuit, filed on March 5, claims that the Indian government has launched a new website through the Ministry of Home Affairs that allows government departments to issue content-blocking orders without stringent oversight. X argues that this mechanism bypasses the legal protections previously in place, which required content removal orders to be made only in cases of harm to national sovereignty or public order and were subject to the scrutiny of senior officials.

X’s legal team contends that the new website has created an “impermissible parallel mechanism” for censorship, allowing for “unrestrained censorship of information” within India. The platform is seeking to have the directive quashed in court.

This filing is the latest chapter in the ongoing conflict between X and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. In 2021, the platform was involved in a standoff with the Indian government over its refusal to comply with orders to block tweets related to a farmers’ protest against government policies. Though X eventually complied with these requests after facing public criticism, the legal challenge surrounding these decisions continues.

The case was briefly heard by a judge in the High Court of Karnataka state earlier this week, but no final ruling was made. The court is scheduled to hear the case again on March 27.

Brave Software Sues News Corp Over Copyright Dispute

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In a significant legal battle, Brave Software has filed a lawsuit against News Corp in response to a cease-and-desist letter sent by the media conglomerate. The letter warned Brave that it faced potential litigation for allegedly “scraping” copyrighted content from News Corp’s websites, including those of The Wall Street Journal and New York Post. The suit was filed on Wednesday night in San Francisco federal court.

Brave, the company behind the Brave Search engine, argues that its actions are covered under the “fair use” doctrine, asserting that indexing website content is a necessary practice for search engines to operate. The company also contends that News Corp’s actions could undermine advancements in generative AI, claiming that chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini rely on search engine responses, which could be impacted by this dispute.

According to Brave, its market share is a fraction of the search industry, with its search engine holding less than 1% of the market, while Google dominates with nearly 90%, followed by Microsoft’s Bing. Brave accuses News Corp and its partners of attempting to “bully” the company and further cementing the already high barriers to entry in the search engine market.

In a public statement, Robert Thomson, CEO of News Corp, rejected Brave’s claims, labeling the company’s actions as “piratical, parasitical practices” disguised as traditional search. He emphasized that the unauthorized use and sale of News Corp’s copyrighted content to AI engines and other clients is not fair use, but a blatant violation of intellectual property rights.

This legal battle adds to the growing tensions between publishers and tech companies over the use of copyrighted content in support of AI technologies. News Corp has previously filed lawsuits against other companies, including Perplexity AI, for alleged unauthorized copying of its articles.

In its lawsuit, Brave is seeking a declaration from the court that its use of copyrighted News Corp content for search indexing purposes is not a form of infringement. The case highlights the broader conflict between content creators, who argue for protection of their intellectual property, and technology companies, which push for more access to such content to power AI developments.

French Publishers and Authors Sue Meta for Alleged Copyright Infringement in AI Training

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France’s leading publishing and authors’ associations have filed a lawsuit against Meta, accusing the U.S. tech giant of using copyrighted content without permission to train its artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The lawsuit was filed earlier this week in a Paris court, with the plaintiffs alleging copyright infringement and economic “parasitism.”

The groups behind the lawsuit include the National Publishing Union (SNE), the National Union of Authors and Composers (SNAC), and the Society of Men of Letters (SGDL), which represent authors and publishers in France. They argue that Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has been illegally using copyright-protected material to enhance its AI models.

Maia Bensimon, general delegate of SNAC, described the actions as a form of “monumental looting.” Renaud Lefebvre, Director General of SNE, referred to the lawsuit as “David versus Goliath,” emphasizing that the legal action aims to set a precedent for the protection of copyright in the face of rapidly advancing AI technologies.

This lawsuit marks the first of its kind in France against an AI giant, though similar legal actions are already underway in other countries, particularly in the United States. In 2023, Sarah Silverman, an American actress and author, along with other plaintiffs, sued Meta for allegedly misusing their works to train its Llama language model. Other authors, including Christopher Farnsworth, have also filed lawsuits against Meta for similar claims.

In addition to Meta, OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, faces similar copyright lawsuits in the United States, Canada, and India over the data used to train its generative AI systems.