As India Prepares for Elections, Government Silences Critics on X with Executive Order

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It is troubling to see that the Indian government has issued new demands to X (formerly Twitter) to remove accounts and posts critical of the government and its recent actions. This is especially bears watching as India is preparing for general elections this spring, and concerns for the government’s manipulation of social media critical of it grows.

On Wednesday, X’s Global Government Affairs account (@GlobalAffairs) tweeted:

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. 

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.

Consistent with our position, a writ appeal challenging the Indian government’s blocking orders remains pending. We have also provided the impacted users with notice of these actions in accordance with our policies.

Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency. This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making.

India’s general elections are set to take place in April or May and will elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the country’s parliament. Since February, farm unions in the country have been striking for floor pricing (also known as a minimum support price) for their crops. While protesters have attempted to march to Delhi from neighboring states, authorities have reportedly barricaded city borders, and two neighboring states ruled by the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have deployed troops in order to stop the f

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