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After a video of two Manipur women being paraded naked by a mob and sexually assaulted sparked outrage, the Centre has asked Twitter and other social media platforms to take down the video. Tweets of some accounts that had shared the video have been withheld in India, in response to the government’s demand.

“Some links have been shared with social media companies to take down the video as it could further disrupt the law and order situation in the state,” a senior government official said, requesting anonymity.

The Centre has powers to issue content takedown orders to social media companies under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. What is Section 69 (A), and what have different courts said about it?

[Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in journalist Eli Sanders’ “Wild West” newsletter, which covers internet-related legal issues. Subscribe here.]

The social media platform Parler marketed itself as a place where Americans could “speak freely” and avoid the fear of being “deplatformed.” Its investors included conservative donor Rebekah Mercer, who described Parler as “a beacon to all who value their liberty.” But Parler was never any sort of wholly independent island of absolutely free speech.

Before Parler’s August 2018 launch, according to court documents, its leaders signed the nascent site up for Amazon’s cloud-based web hosting services. In practical terms, this meant that a platform that billed itself as “the world’s…