Kathmandu. India has ordered X to block more than 8,000 accounts, the platform said on Thursday. The platform also said it was reluctantly complying with what it described as government-imposed “censorship.”
The move appears to be part of a broader crackdown by India, which has targeted the social media accounts of Pakistani politicians, celebrities and media houses amid rising tensions and deadly clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
The order to block international news organizations and other prominent users, according to X, comes a day after Meta banned a prominent Muslim news page on Instagram in India at the request of New Delhi.
“X has received executive orders from the Indian government, including significant fines and potential imprisonment for the company’s local employees, in which X has blocked more than 8,000 accounts in India “needs to be done,” the site’s global government affairs team said in a statement.
In most cases, the government did not specify which posts from accounts violated Indian law, and in many others, it provided no evidence or justification for the blocks. The Elon Musk-owned platform disagreed with the demands but said it had begun the process of blocking specific accounts in India.
“Blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, it amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right to freedom of expression,” the statement said. “This is not an easy decision, however keeping the platform accessible in India is critical to Indians’ ability to access information.”
The move comes amid fierce fighting between India and Pakistan, two weeks after New Delhi accused Islamabad of supporting deadly attacks on tourists in the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
Pakistan has denied the allegations. At least 48 people have been killed on both sides of the border in escalating violence since India launched air strikes on what it said were “terrorist camps” on Wednesday. Both countries accused each other of drone strikes on Thursday. X said it could not make public the Indian executive orders due to legal restrictions, but it encouraged affected users to “seek appropriate relief from the courts.” It did not name the affected users, but in recent days Indian media reported that India had blocked the X accounts of Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former Pakistani prime minister and cricket captain Imran Khan.
India has also banned more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels, including Pakistani news organizations, for spreading “provocative” content. Pakistani Bollywood regulars Fawad Khan and Atif Aslam were also confined to India. A variety of cricketers, including star batsmen Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and retired players Shahid Afridi and Wasim Akram, were also confined to India.
The growing hostility between the two South Asian neighbours has led to a flood of misinformation online. Social media users are circulating everything from deepfake videos to old images of unrelated conflicts, which are wrongly linked to the ongoing fighting.
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