- India has ordered X to block more than 8,000 accounts, said the social media company on May 8, 2025
- X considered that the orders of India as censorship and urged account holders to legally challenge the blocks
- India and Pakistan have intensified internet censorship while the conflict between the two countries continues to degenerate
India has issued decrees to X, asking the social media company to block more than 8,000 accounts across the country. The targets, explains X, include accounts belonging to international press organizations and X users
The World Affairs team of the X government revealed details in a long tweet Thursday, May 8, 2025, considering these requests as “censorship” and urging account holders based in India to legally challenge the blocks.
“The blocking of whole accounts is not only useless, it is equivalent to the censorship of the existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of freedom of expression,” wrote X. X.
X does not agree but it is “restricted by Indian law”
“To respect orders, we will refuse the accounts specified in India. We have started this process,” wrote X, adding that the company does not agree with the requests of the Indian government.
This means, however, that blocked account holders can continue to access the platform using one of the best VPN services to usurp their IP address location.
“X explores all possible legal avenues available to the company. Unlike users located in India, X is limited by Indian law in its capacity to bring legal disputes against these decrees,” added the company, while encouraging all affected users to request an appropriate recovery in the courts.
The social media society has even shared a list of legal aid organizations that could help people challenge these blocking orders and said it had notified those affected by these actions.
The World Government’s Government Affairs account was temporarily selected in India, as reported by the journalist for Indian technology Adit Agrawal on his LinkedIn account.
The account was restored on Friday morning. According to a person aware of the case, Agrawal reported, X blocked the account without official prescription after the authorities questioned the company on the tweet.
“Now Meity has issued an X order so as not to block it, according to this person,” wrote Agrawal.
Information India / Pakistan Cromdoud
X blocking controls coincide with a peak of censorship on the internet across the country while conflict with neighboring Pakistan is intensifying.
On Wednesday, May 7, Meta also blocked a large page of new Muslim on Instagram at the request of the authorities, as the Guardian reported.
On Thursday, the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting also published an opinion urging all media companies, streaming services and online platforms to block all content from Pakistan.
For its part, Pakistan resumed access to X on Wednesday after a 15 -month ban.
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has also blocked access to at least 16 YouTube news channels and 32 India websites on the same day, to have allegedly distributed disinformation and anti-Pakistani propaganda.
As the BBC, India and Pakistan have replaced, have been blamed for having increased military tensions and have both launched a series of missiles and drone strikes since Wednesday. This represents a major escalation of existing tensions in the disputed area of cashmere between the two nuclear countries.
