On January 16, the X account (formerly Twitter) of Hindutva Watch, an independent research initiative that documents hate crimes against India’s religious minorities and marginalised communities, was withheld in the country in response to a legal demand. A search for the website’s X handle, which had over 77,000 followers, resulted in a blank page with a notice confirming the action.
Its founder Raqib Hameed Naik later clarified that the social media giant withheld the account following a legal demand by the Indian government alleging that it had violated provisions of the Information Technology Act, (IT Act) 2000. He was, however, not intimated as to which content violated the law.
Mr. Naik said that the move was “shocking” but “not surprising” since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime “had a history of suppressing free press & critical voices”.
