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Elon Musk’s X Faces Criticism from Indian Government Over Censorship Claims
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Elon Musk meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington, D.C., USA on February 13, 2025. — Reuters
- The website’s primary goal is to promptly inform tech companies of their responsibilities.
- This lawsuit indicates a heightened legal clash between X and Modi’s administration.
- X asserts that the Indian government has unlawfully broadened its censorship authority.
NEW DELHI: India has criticized Elon Musk’s X for inaccurately labeling an official website, designed for informing tech companies about harmful online content, as a "censorship portal," according to legal documents examined by Reuters on Friday.
This lawsuit illustrates the ongoing legal tension between X and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government regarding the removal of online content. This conflict arises just as Musk prepares to roll out his other major ventures in India, such as Starlink and Tesla.
The dispute follows a lawsuit filed by X on March 5 in Karnataka, challenging the government’s website initiative.
"The choice of words employed by a globally recognized platform like X is regrettable and should be condemned," the IT ministry asserted in court, emphasizing that the company was voicing "baseless concerns of censorship."
Though the ministry’s March 27 statement to the court has not been made public, it did not provide immediate comments in response to Reuters‘ inquiries.
The Modi administration maintains that the new website was created solely to quickly notify tech companies about their due diligence responsibilities, asserting that no blocking orders have been issued.
On the other hand, X claims that India has unjustly extended its censorship powers, enabling the easier removal of online content and giving "countless" government officials the authority to execute such removal requests through the site it called a "censorship portal."
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