In India, most visitors attempting to access the website of news portal The Wire are met with a blank page and a notice that says, “The website has been blocked as per the order of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology under the IT Act, 2000.”

“It is an attack on press freedom and on the right of every Indian to access information. It must be lifted immediately,” The Wire’s cofounder Siddharth Varadarajan posted on X. The Wire’s own statement called it a “clear violation of the Constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press” and said it would take “all necessary steps to challenge this arbitrary and inexplicable move”.

But users may encounter similar notices elsewhere. 

Yesterday, social media platform X announced that it had complied with  executive orders from the Indian government to “block over 8,000 accounts in India”. These included the X accounts of Maktoob Media, BBC Urdu, Free Press Kashmir, The Kashmiriyat and journalists Muzamil Jaleel and Anuradha Bhasin.

The news of the blocks on X were tweeted by the company’s Global Government Affairs handle, which also said it disagrees with the government’s decision since “it amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech”. Noting that it didn’t receive “evidence or justification” for a number of the accounts, it encouraged users being blocked to “seek appropriate relief from the courts”. 

X has received executive orders from the Indian government requiring X to block over 8,000 accounts in India, 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…

X’s own Global Government Affairs handle was then briefly withheld in India this morning.

Journalists blocked on X told Newslaundry they didn’t receive intimations from either X or the government about their accounts being withheld. 

Meanwhile, an official from the union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which issues these orders to X, told Newslaundry that a user will face action if they “repeatedly violate” the government’s “media advisory”, and that this decision is taken “in national interest and to protect sovereignty”. 

The Ministry of Defence also tweeted today that media channels must “refrain from live coverage or real-time reporting of defence operations and movement........

© newslaundry