X (formerly Twitter) announced on Thursday that it had received orders from the Indian government to block over 8,000 accounts—including those of international news outlets and prominent users—but criticized the move as excessive censorship lacking transparency.
The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organizations and prominent X users, it said.
In most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account have violated India’s local laws, the statement added.
For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts, it added.
“To comply with the orders, we will withhold the specified accounts in India alone. We have begun that process. However, we disagree with the Indian government’s demands. Blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, it amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech,” X said in its announcement.
“This is not an easy decision, however keeping the platform accessible in India is vital to Indians’ ability to access information.”
The forum added that we believe that making these executive orders public is essential for transparency – lack of disclosure discourages accountability and can contribute to arbitrary decision making.
“However, due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders at this time.”
X is exploring all possible legal avenues available to the company, the statement noted.
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