India asks X to ban over 8k accounts subject to penalties

New Delhi: Social media platform X has received executive orders from the Indian government requiring X to block over 8,000 accounts in India, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees, a statement by the Global Government Affairs said.

The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organisations and prominent X users.

In most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account have violated India’s local laws. For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts, the statement said.

To comply with the orders, we will withhold the specified accounts in India alone. We have begun that process. However, we disagree with the Indian government’s demands. Blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, it amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech.

This is not an easy decision, however keeping the platform accessible in India is vital to Indians’ ability to access information.
We believe that making these executive orders public is essential for transparency – lack of disclosure discourages accountability and can contribute to arbitrary decision making. However, due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders at this time.
X is exploring all possible legal avenues available to the company. Unlike users located in India, X is restricted by Indian law in its ability to challenge these executive orders. However, we encourage all users who are impacted by these blocking orders to seek appropriate relief from the courts.

X said that they provided the affected users with notice of the actions in accordance with our policies. Affected users may also contact the Indian government at [email protected].

Meanwhile, following heightened tensions between India and Pakistan over a deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, the accounts of Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former Prime Minister Imran Khan, founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), have been suspended in India.