Will comply, but disagree with govt order on blocking posts: X

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, February 22

Elon Musk-led X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday said the Government of India had asked the microblogging site to act against some accounts and posts and while it will withhold the flagged content in India, “it disagreed with these actions”.

“The Indian Government has issued executive orders requiring X to act on specific accounts and posts, subject to potential penalties, including significant fines and imprisonment. In compliance with the orders, 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,” Global Government Affairs, an arm of X, said.

Murder of democracy: Rahul Gandhi

Modi ji, the public knows that you have murdered democracy and the public will answer! — Rahul Gandhi, Congress Ex-president

Challenged similar action in 2022

• Govt via executive orders has sought action on certain accounts & posts, subject to potential penalties, including fines and jail term, claims X
• In 2022, Twitter had challenged govt orders to take down some content; Karnataka HC dismissed its plea in 2023, imposing Rs 50L fine
• X says its writ appeal challenging govt’s orders remains pending in court; as such due to legal restrictions, it cannot publish govt orders, it adds

It said consistent with the site’s position, a writ appeal challenging the Indian government’s blocking orders remained pending. “We have also provided the impacted users with notice of these actions in accordance with our policies. Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency. This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making,” it added.

The opposition Congress weighed in on the issue with Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh tagging the X post on the issue and saying: “Murder of democracy in India.” In 2022, Twitter had challenged orders to take down some content. In 2023, the Karnataka High Court dismissed the plea.

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#Democracy #Elon Musk #Rahul Gandhi #Social Media #Twitter