(Adnkronos) – India has asked X to block over 8,000 accounts. The platform announced it, specifying that it reluctantly follows what it describes as “censorship”. “X has received executive orders from the Indian government requesting the blocking of more than 8,000 accounts in India, subject to potential sanctions including significant fines and imprisonment for local employees,” the platform said amid the new escalation between India and Pakistan, adding that the provisions also concern “requests to block access in India to accounts” of international media and “prominent X users” and that “in many cases the Indian government has not specified which posts from which accounts have violated local laws”.
“For a significant number of accounts, we have not received evidence or justification for the block,” the statement continues, emphasizing that “to comply with the provisions we will suspend the specific accounts only in India.” “We have initiated this procedure. However, we do not agree with the requests of the Indian government. Blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, but amounts to censoring existing and future content and is contrary to the fundamental right to free expression,” they insisted, speaking of a “not easy decision” and stressing that “however, keeping the platform accessible in India is vital for the possibility of Indians to access information”. The invitation to users affected by the provisions is to contact the courts.
