Microblogging platform X’s @GlobalAffairs handle, where it regularly posts information on blocking orders received from governments, was suspended in India on Friday morning but was reinstated later in the day.The account displayed a message, “@GlobalAffairs has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand,” on Friday morning. By mid-day, users in India could see all posts in its timeline, including a post published on Thursday night where the platform said it received government orders to block 8,000 accounts in India.X and the ministry of electronics and information technology did not respond to ET’s requests for comment.
X has taken the government to court in the past over blocking orders that it claimed were issued arbitrarily without following the procedures provided under the Information Technology Act. Currently, it has one case pending in the Karnataka High Court over this matter.
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On Thursday too, X said it did not agree with the government decision to block accounts.Its post said the executive orders from the Indian government came with a warning of “potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company’s local employees” for non-compliance.”The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organisations and prominent X users,” it said, claiming that in most cases, the Indian government had not specified which posts from an account had violated local laws.
The platform said to comply with the orders, it would withhold the specified accounts in India.
“We believe that making these executive orders public is essential for transparency,” it said.