X refuses India's request to block 8,000 accounts
Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has pushed back against executive orders from the Indian government demanding the platform block over 8,000 accounts within India, including those of international news organizations and high-profile users.
The development comes amid the Indian government's ongoing efforts to restrict access to information during its recent escalation with Pakistan.
Authorities have already blocked several social media accounts and YouTube channels belonging to Pakistani news outlets and prominent personalities, an action widely seen as an attempt to curb free speech and restrict the right to information.
In a post shared by the platform’s official Global Government Affairs account, which represents the voice of X’s government engagement team and has over 541,000 followers, the company stated that “X has received executive orders from the Indian government requiring X to block over 8,000 accounts in India while threatening potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees.”
X has received executive orders from the Indian government requiring X to block over 8,000 accounts in India, subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees. The orders include demands to block access in India to…
The orders reportedly include a broad directive to restrict access to accounts inside India, with no clear explanation provided for most alleged violations.
“In most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account violated local laws,” X stated. It added, “For a significant number of accounts, we received no evidence or justification to support the blocking requests.”
Although the post did not specify when the Indian government made the request, it appears the demand was issued amid the recent rise in tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations.
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While X has begun the process of complying with the orders by withholding specified accounts in India only, the platform made it clear that it opposes the directive on principle, saying “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.”
It is worth noting that, in most cases, X’s management declined to take immediate action on content removal requests, instead requesting additional information to assess potential violations of its policies.
The post emphasised that keeping the platform accessible in India is “vital to Indians’ ability to access information,” despite the difficult trade-offs involved.
X also underlined the importance of public accountability in government orders involving content regulation and stated 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.”
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However, the company noted it is currently unable to publish the orders due to legal constraints, adding that it is exploring all available legal avenues to challenge the demands.
While X itself is limited under Indian law in contesting such directives, it urged affected users to seek legal remedies. “Unlike users located in India, X is restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges against these executive orders. However, we encourage all users who are impacted by these blocking orders to seek appropriate relief from the courts,” the post said.