On Thursday, Elon Musk’s social media platform X declared that it would prohibit some Indian users and information in response to executive orders from the government.
The mandate said that the company would face “potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment” if it did not comply, even though X disagreed with it.
“We will withhold these accounts and posts in India alone; however, we disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts,” the platform’s Global Government Affairs stated, failing to reveal the identities of the accounts.
On Thursday, Elon Musk’s social media platform X declared that it would prohibit some Indian users and information in response to executive orders from the government.
The mandate said that the company would face “potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment” if it did not comply, even though X disagreed with it.
“We will withhold these accounts and posts in India alone; however, we disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts,” the platform’s Global Government Affairs stated, failing to reveal the identities of the accounts.
X and the Indian government have been at odds for a long time.
Co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, asserted in June that the Indian government had threatened to shut down the service if it did not comply with directives to ban accounts that expressed disapproval of the way the government had handled earlier farmer protests. Twitter was rebranded as X under Musk.
The administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has denied the claims, calling them a “lie.”
Musk was forewarned by the Modi administration in October that X would need to abide by the nation’s soon-to-be-imposed IT regulations.
X was told to take down posts during the epidemic that criticized the government for how it handled COVID-19.
According to Our World in Data, India’s score for freedom of expression in 2022 was 0.52, which was lower than that of Sri Lanka (0.67) and Pakistan (0.66).
“Due to legal restrictions,” X stated in a post that it was unable to publish the presidential directives. Nonetheless, the corporation added that it has filed an appeal contesting the Indian government’s decision to suspend accounts that are still pending.
In line with our regulations, we have also notified the affected users of these steps, the message stated.
The post said, “We think that making them public is essential for transparency.” “This lack of transparency may result in arbitrary decision-making and a lack of accountability.”
Indian citizens expressed their dissatisfaction with the decision on social media, writing derogatory remarks like “Shame on you, Dictator Modi” and “Freedom of expression cannot mean spreading anarchy in the country.”