They'll have to comply with Indian law: Govt official on X's takedown visibility push

Amid Elon Musk's recent announcement that X will make government content takedown requests more transparent and visible, a senior IT Ministry official on Tuesday asserted that the platform "will have to comply with the Indian laws".

X's new transparency push seeks to make government-directed content restrictions more visible to users, and bring more clarity on takedown requests. It intends to disclose which government was behind such a request, and why the content was flagged.

Asked about the IT Ministry's stance on the issue, a senior official made it clear that the platform "will have to comply with Indian law".

"...There is a process...there are two sets of processes. We don't talk about orders we issue specifically under 69 (A) because it is intended to be maintained as confidential," the official said.

In a post on X recently, Musk had announced that "any censorship required by governments is now clearly visible".

X and the Indian government have sparred in the past over content takedown orders and the limits of free speech on the platform. 

Back in 2024, X complied with government directions to withhold certain accounts and posts linked to the farmers' protests in India, but publicly expressed its disagreement with the orders, saying it amounted to curtailing freedom of expression. X had argued in its 'Global Government Affairs' handle at that time that lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making, and that greater transparency around such directives was essential.

Another confrontation had played out around the Centre's 'Sahyog portal', a platform facilitating content-blocking orders for social media and internet intermediaries, which X had equated to being a form of extra-legal censorship, while the government defended it as an efficient mechanism for regulation.