X's handle @GlobalAffairs that made public on Thursday night the fact that the government had issued blocking orders for 8,000 accounts was unblocked in India after surprisingly being withheld on Friday morning.
Users in India could see all posts in its timeline on Friday morning including the post made on Thursday night that was withheld on Friday morning.
The safeguards and procedures under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act as outlined in the Blocking Rules, include several key provisions such as: the reasons for issuing blocking orders must be recorded in writing; there must be pre-decisional hearings where the intermediary and the affected user have the opportunity to participate; and post-decisional reviews of information blocking directions.
These safeguards are crucial to ensure that the power to block information is not used arbitrarily.
The account had on Friday morning said, "@GlobalAffairs has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand."
This is the handle that X has regularly used in the past to update its users on blocking orders received from the government. X has taken the government to court in the past over blocking orders issued arbitrarily.
Even on Thursday the social media company had said it does not agree with the government's decision to block accounts. Currently it has one pending case in the Karnataka HC over the government's misuse of provisions in the IT Act for issuing blocking orders.
X and the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) did not respond to ET's requests for a comment. This article will be updated when they do.
In X's Global Government Affairs handle's last post on Thursday night that was not visible to users in India temporarily on Friday morning, X had said that it received executive orders from the Indian government requiring it to block over 8,000 accounts in the country "subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company's local employees".
“The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organisations and prominent X users. In most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account have violated India’s local laws. For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts,” X had said.
It had further said that to comply with the orders, it will withhold the specified accounts in India alone.
"We have begun that process. However, we disagree with the Indian government's demands. Blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, it amounts to censorship of existing and future content..."
X had said the decision is not an easy one, but "keeping the platform accessible in India is vital to Indians' ability to access information".
"We believe that making these executive orders public is essential for transparency - lack of disclosure discourages accountability and can contribute to arbitrary decision-making. However, due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders at this time," it had said.
"Unlike users located in India, X is restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges against these executive orders. However, we encourage all users who are impacted by these blocking orders to seek appropriate relief from the courts," the last post by X made visible to Indian users on Friday had said, after being withheld temporarily.
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The safeguards and procedures under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act as outlined in the Blocking Rules, include several key provisions such as: the reasons for issuing blocking orders must be recorded in writing; there must be pre-decisional hearings where the intermediary and the affected user have the opportunity to participate; and post-decisional reviews of information blocking directions.
These safeguards are crucial to ensure that the power to block information is not used arbitrarily.
The account had on Friday morning said, "@GlobalAffairs has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand."
This is the handle that X has regularly used in the past to update its users on blocking orders received from the government. X has taken the government to court in the past over blocking orders issued arbitrarily.
Even on Thursday the social media company had said it does not agree with the government's decision to block accounts. Currently it has one pending case in the Karnataka HC over the government's misuse of provisions in the IT Act for issuing blocking orders.
X and the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) did not respond to ET's requests for a comment. This article will be updated when they do.
In X's Global Government Affairs handle's last post on Thursday night that was not visible to users in India temporarily on Friday morning, X had said that it received executive orders from the Indian government requiring it to block over 8,000 accounts in the country "subject to potential penalties including significant fines and imprisonment of the company's local employees".
“The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organisations and prominent X users. In most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account have violated India’s local laws. For a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts,” X had said.
It had further said that to comply with the orders, it will withhold the specified accounts in India alone.
"We have begun that process. However, we disagree with the Indian government's demands. Blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, it amounts to censorship of existing and future content..."
X had said the decision is not an easy one, but "keeping the platform accessible in India is vital to Indians' ability to access information".
"We believe that making these executive orders public is essential for transparency - lack of disclosure discourages accountability and can contribute to arbitrary decision-making. However, due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders at this time," it had said.
"Unlike users located in India, X is restricted by Indian law in its ability to bring legal challenges against these executive orders. However, we encourage all users who are impacted by these blocking orders to seek appropriate relief from the courts," the last post by X made visible to Indian users on Friday had said, after being withheld temporarily.
