Social media platform X withholds some political posts in India after Election Commission's takedown order
The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to take place in seven phases, commencing on April 19. While the ruling NDA aims to maintain power with Prime Minister Modi at the helm, the I.N.D.I.A bloc is seeking to unseat the BJP-led alliance.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Social media platform X on Tuesday said that it had withheld certain posts in India containing political speech from elected politicians, political parties, and candidates for office after the Election Commission ordered to takedown.
Howver, the X, owned by Elon Musk, expressed its disagreement with the orders issued by the election commission. "The Election Commission of India has issued takedown orders requiring X to act on posts containing political speech shared from elected politicians, political parties and candidates for office. In compliance with the orders, we have withheld these posts for the remainder of the election period; however, we disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts and political speech in general," the X said in a statement.
"We have notified the affected users and in the interest of transparency, we are publishing the takedown orders here. We call on the Election Commission to publish all of its takedown orders going forward," it added.
The Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases beginning on April 19 and the counting of votes will take place on June 4 for the world’s biggest election exercise in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi will bid for a third consecutive term. Voting in the other phases will be held on April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.
(With Reuters input)