The global affairs team of Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) in a post shared on Thursday claimed that the Indian government had issued "executive orders" asking the platform to take actions against specific accounts and posts.
In compliance with the government's orders, the social media giant announced they would be withholding these accounts and posts in India, despite the platform's disagreement with the move.
"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 post read.
X said that while they had already provided the affected users with a notice as per their policies, they are yet to file a petition challenging the government's blocking orders.
Even though the platform acknowledged that making the executive orders public was essential for transparency, they were unable to do so owing to legal restrictions.
"This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making," the post concluded.
It is significant to not that in 2022 when Elon Musk took over Twitter (now X), India clarified that it would expect the platform to adhere with the policies of the country irrespective of who owns it.
"Our rules and laws for intermediaries remain the same regardless of who owns the platforms," Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India’s minister of state for electronics and information technology had said. "So, the expectation of compliance with Indian laws and rules remains," Chandrasekhar had further clarified.
Published 22 February 2024, 04:40 IST