New Delhi: Elon Musk owned social media platform X has accused the Indian authorities of ordering them to take down sure accounts and posts. The firm has not obtained any official response from the federal government but. On Thursday morning, X’s Global Government Affairs printed a submit expressing their opposition to the order, saying that it violated the precept of freedom of expression. They stated they might observe the order, however solely in India.
“The Indian government has given us executive orders to remove specific accounts and posts, or face severe consequences such as huge fines and jail time. We will obey the orders and block these accounts and posts only in India; but we do not agree with these actions and believe that these posts should be free to express,” the submit learn.
The Indian authorities has issued govt orders requiring X to behave on particular accounts and posts, topic to potential penalties together with important fines and imprisonment.
In compliance with the orders, we’ll withhold these accounts and posts in India alone; nevertheless,…
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) February 21, 2024
The Global Government Affairs of X additionally stated that they’d filed a authorized attraction in opposition to the federal government’s orders and had notified the affected customers of their actions as per their insurance policies. “Because of legal limitations, we cannot share the executive orders, but we think that they should be made public for the sake of transparency. This secrecy can result in a lack of responsibility and random decision-making,” they added.
Earlier in 2022, X’s account with the Pakistan authorities was withheld in India. This was reportedly the second such incident in current months. This account was withheld earlier in July 2022 as properly however had been reactivated and was seen.
Later in October, primarily based on the inputs from intelligence businesses, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had directed YouTube to dam 45 YouTube movies from 10 YouTube channels. Orders to dam the involved movies have been issued on October 23, underneath the provisions of the Information Technology.
The blocked movies had a cumulative viewership of over 1 crore 30 lakh views. The content material included pretend information and morphed movies unfold with the intent to unfold hatred amongst spiritual communities. Examples embrace false claims such because the Government has taken away the spiritual rights of sure communities, violent threats in opposition to spiritual communities, declaration of civil warfare in India, and so on.