Lok Sabha elections 2024: ECI orders X to take down political posts
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has instructed the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to delete specific posts in India that contain political speeches by elected officials, political parties, and candidates. The ECI stated that these posts went against the model code of conduct and needed to be removed.
X complied with the ECI’s orders and restricted access to the posts in question in India, even though it disagreed with the ECI’s actions. X believes that there should be more freedom of expression for political speech. The platform informed the affected users and made the takedown orders public on its platform for transparency.
In its statement, X mentioned, “We have withheld these posts for the remainder of the election period in compliance with the orders. However, we disagree with these actions and believe that freedom of expression should apply to these posts and political speech in general.” Furthermore, X urged the Election Commission to publish all of its takedown orders in the future.
X also revealed that it had removed several social media posts from various political leaders and parties, including the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), YSR Congress, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) President N Chandrababu Naidu, and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and state BJP president Samrat Choudhary.
The ECI requested the removal of one post each from the YSRCP and Naidu on April 2 for violating Model Code of Conduct (MCC) guidelines. Additionally, separate requests on April 2 and April 3 were made for the removal of posts by the AAP and Choudhary, citing violations of the same MCC provisions.
