X's Global Government Affairs Handle Reinstated After Brief Block In India
Earlier, a message displayed on the account stated, "@GlobalAffairs has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand."
The social media platform X’s handle, @GlobalAffairs, which recently disclosed that the Indian government had issued blocking orders for 8,000 accounts, was briefly withheld in India on Friday morning.
Users in India reported being unable to view any posts from the @GlobalAffairs timeline. A message displayed on the account stated, “@GlobalAffairs has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand."
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The account, which X has utilized to inform its user base about government-issued blocking directives, was restored around 11:00am.
The temporary withholding comes after @GlobalAffairs made public that a significant number of accounts that the government had ordered to be blocked.
“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 added, “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 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 earlier 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," it explained.
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