The social media platform X suspended several accounts and took down certain posts related to ongoing farmers’ protests in India after receiving orders from the BJP-led Indian government.
However, the Elon Musk-owned firm did not provide details about deleted accounts and posts but said that it “disagrees” with the directives and stressed maintaining freedom of expression.
In a social media post, the Global Government Affairs account of X wrote, “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,” it added.
The official order was issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) at the behest of the Ministry of Home Affairs on February 14, just a day after the farmers’ ‘Delhi Chalo’ march began.
According to a Hindustan Times report, MeitY finalised its suspension orders of 177 accounts linked to the ‘Delhi Chalo’ march and later the Centre sent this order to Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, X (formerly Twitter), and Snap, asking them to block these accounts till 19th February to maintain public order and later they can be restored.
As the social media platform suspended specific accounts and posts in compliance with the executive orders issued by the Indian government, it said, “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.”
The Global Government Affairs, reaffirming its commitment to freedom of speech, stated that a writ appeal contesting the Indian government’s orders to suspend accounts is currently pending.
“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 under our policies,” it said.
On Wednesday, the ongoing farmers’ protest reported the first casualty, following which farmer leaders led by Sarvan Singh Pandher have called for the registration of a murder case against those deemed responsible for the death of a protesting farmer at the Khanauri border point of Punjab-Haryana.
On February 13, farmers began a march towards New Delhi, responding to a call from the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha and the non-political Samyukta Kisan Morcha. Their objective is to advocate for the fulfillment of their demands, including a legal guarantee for purchasing crops at a Minimum Support Price (MSP) and the implementation of a farm loan waiver.
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