X Says Modi Government Has Asked It to Block Over 8,000 Accounts in India

The Wire

08-05-2025

The logo of the social media site X, formerly called 'Twitter'.
New Delhi: X announced on Thursday (May 8) that the Union government has ordered it to block no less than 8,000 accounts on its platform in India and that despite its disagreement with these orders, it has begun complying with them.
It also noted that the government's orders come with potential penalties for itself such as 'significant fines and imprisonment of the company's local employees'.
The Elon Musk-run platform's announcement comes as some journalists and news organisations had their X accounts withheld in India in response to the government's legal demands.
In most of the over 8,000 blocking orders the government issued, it 'has not specified which posts from an account have violated India's local laws', X's Global Government Affairs department posted. It added: 'For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts.'
'We disagree with the Indian government's demands,' X said, even as it noted that it will withhold the accounts concerned in India in order to comply with the orders.
'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 said. 'This is not an easy decision, however keeping the platform accessible in India is vital to Indians' ability to access information.'
While it believes that making the government's blocking orders public is necessary in the interests of transparency, X said it is unable to make the Modi government's orders public due to 'legal restrictions'.
The company, which said it is exploring legal recourse, also advised 'all users who are impacted by these blocking orders to seek appropriate relief from the courts' and went on to provide websites of legal aid organisations in India.
'Maktoob Media' among those whose X accounts withheld
The X account of Maktoob Media, a digital news platform whose coverage focuses on human rights and minority issues in India, is one of several withheld in the country.
An attempt to access its X account from India shows a message saying it has been 'withheld in India in response to a legal demand'. X provides no reason for the ban.
'In our continuing effort to make our services available to people everywhere, if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorised entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time,' a message from X reads on Maktoob 's handle.
'Such withholdings,' it adds, 'will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local laws.'
'Assault on press freedom'
Calling the ban an assault on press freedom, Maktoob 's editor, Aslah Kayyalakkath, wrote on X: 'We have no knowledge of the reason for the government's arbitrary action … Maktoob pledges to continue its crucial work at a time when truth is becoming a casualty.'
Aslah told The Wire that while the reason for the ban is unclear, he has received at least 50 threat calls over Maktoob 's coverage of the hate speech and revenge attacks against Muslims and Kashmiri students.
'We covered over 64 hate speeches, we reported on hate attacks and lynchings including the lynching of a Muslim man in Mangalore.' The man, Kayyalakkath added, 'was falsely accused of chanting pro-Pakistan slogans, but we busted this fake narrative and showed that he was killed for drinking water [belonging to an upper-caste man'.
Kayyalakkath added that Maktoob was the first to publish the list of deaths due to shelling by Pakistan in Poonch. 'We report on facts. We wrote a profile of Lieutenant Vinay Narwal and pony rider Adil Shah. What we didn't pursue is war mongering and jingoism.
'It's hard to get any response or clarity from social sites, but we will challenge this ban,' he said.
Apart from Maktoob, the accounts of deputy editor and senior journalist at the Indian Express Muzzamil Jaleel, news sites like Kashmiryat and influencer Arpit Sharma, who makes videos on social issues, have also been withheld in India.
Force, an India-based magazine that covers defence and aerospace, wrote on X that a recent video posted by editor Pravin Sawhney has been withheld in India.
'Blocking media that raises questions does not increase the credibility of the message the government wants to communicate at this critical juncture. It only raises more doubts,' its statement said.
Sharma feels that there's a pattern of selective targeting at play.
'I made videos against misinformation, asked questions on security lapses, spoke against communal politics post-Pahalgam. My message was no different from foreign secretary Misri's, who was exposing the designs of the terrorists,' he said.
Amid the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, a flood of disinformation has surfaced on social media, prompting the Union government to go on a blocking spree against Pakistani accounts targeting India on various social media platforms. The government has also had withheld from India the social media accounts of a number of Pakistani news outlets and celebrities.
However, Sharma feels that the present climate is being misused to silence critics.
'First they filed cases against Dr Medusa and Neha Rathore, then they banned 4 PM News on YouTube. No such action has been taken against right-wing influencers spreading fake news. Instead, this ban came after campaigns and demands by such influencers to ban me and others who ask questions and demand accountability from the government.'
This article was updated with information about X's statement.