X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, has effectively waved the white flag as far as censorship requests from India are concerned. In its first detailed statement on the Union government’s frequent blocking requests to the platform, X’s Global Government Affairs team posted a defence of its users’ freedom of expression — without actually backing it with any new action to protect it. Against the backdrop of several blocking orders targeting accounts posting about the farmers’ protests at the Delhi border, this is the first time X has spoken in some detail about blocking orders from India.
“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,” the unsigned post on early Thursday morning said. “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.”
The company will not do anything new to defend these individuals’ freedom of expression, it indicated, referring to a “pending appeal” in the Karnataka High Court on blocking orders where the next hearing is on March 20, a month after the last one, which happened on Tuesday. In that hearing, X sought more time to respond to a recent government affidavit.
The company no longer publishes any government blocking order from anywhere in the world, a freeze that started shortly after Elon Musk acquired the social media platform. “Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency,” the company said.
That statement does not hold up to X’s own past behaviour: on Lumen Database, the firm would post a list of accounts and handles which were taken down due to government orders under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. But the firm has stopped publishing even these lists, something which the government has not loudly objected to in previous court hearings.
The banned social media accounts on X and Facebook of farmer leaders and organizations include: Sarvan Singh Pandher, the coordinator of Kisan Mazdoor Morcha (KMM), Tejveer Singh Ambala, the spokesperson of BKU (Shaheed Bhagat Singh), farmer leader Ramandeep Singh Mann, Surjit Singh Phull from BKU Krantikari, farmer leader Harpal Sangha, Ashok Danoda from Haryana, as well as official farmer groups like @Tractor2twitr_P, Bhartiya Kisan Union spokesman, Progressive Farmers Front and Kisan Majdoor Morcha.
Some prominent non-farmers who have expressed their opinions or been a part of the farmers movement have also been banned on social media including independent journalist Mandeep Punia, Khalsa Aid’s Ravi Singh, as well as Canadian Punjabi singer Jazzy B.
(With inputs from Nihal Krishan)
