X made this announcement through its Global Government Affairs handle. The company explained that it had no choice but to follow these orders.
After India conducted airstrikes under ‘Operation Sindoor’, social media was flooded with a lot of wrong and fake information. Elon Musk-owned platform X (earlier known as Twitter) has now said that the Indian government has sent them executive orders to block over 8,000 accounts in India.
These blocked accounts also include those of “international news organisations and prominent X users“, according to the company.
X made this announcement through its Global Government Affairs handle. The company explained that it had no choice but to follow these orders.
If not, it could face serious consequences, including “significant fines and imprisonment of its local employees.”
So, to follow the rules, X said it will “withhold the specified accounts in India alone“ and that “we have begun that process.“
However, the company made it clear that “we disagree with the Indian government’s demands.”
X further stated that “in most cases, the Indian government has not specified which posts from an account have violated India’s local laws.”
It also pointed out that “for a significant number of accounts, we did not receive any evidence or justification to block the accounts.”
The platform criticised the decision by saying, “blocking entire accounts is not only unnecessary, it amounts to censorship of existing and future content, and is contrary to the fundamental right of free speech.”
Earlier, media reported that after news of Operation Sindoor spread, X was flooded with misinformation about India’s strikes on nine locations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). As the false claims grew online, the Indian Ministries of Information Technology and Information & Broadcasting stepped in. They decided to use their legal powers to block accounts and content that they believed were spreading wrong or misleading information related to the military operation.
Some of the blocked accounts belong to Pakistan-based news platforms such as Dawn and GeoNews, whose X handles are now not accessible in India.
By publicly sharing the number of accounts the Indian government asked them to block, X has given a rare insight into how widely these blocking orders are being used after Operation Sindoor.
The company added, “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, they also mentioned that “due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders at this time.”
As India carried out the airstrikes early Wednesday, X and other social media platforms became filled with fake visuals and false information. This included videos of unrelated airstrikes, old images, and even clips from video games presented as real footage from the operation.
The Indian government’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) fact check unit has flagged several fake posts related to the strikes. One viral claim included a fake letter supposedly written by a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist, alleging that there was a problem in the BrahMos missile. But the PIB fact check team said that no such scientist works at DRDO and the letter is fake.
Old videos of a crashed aircraft were also wrongly shared as recent footage, with fake claims that Pakistan had shot down an Indian Rafale jet near Bahawalpur during the ongoing operations. The PIB has said this claim is “fake.”
Just last month, after a terror attack in Pahalgam, the Indian government had already banned 16 Pakistani YouTube channels. These included well-known ones like Dawn News, Samaa TV, Ary News, and GeoNews. The reason given was that these channels were spreading false, communal, and misleading information against India and its armed forces.
