BENGALURU, Nov 4 (Reuters) – Two of India’s most prominent digital rights and free speech groups said police in New Delhi have asked X to remove their accounts, accusing them of defaming a Hindu nationalist group linked to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Free-speech activists and opposition politicians, including from India’s Congress party, say the move is a way to curb dissent in the world’s most populous nation.
India, which has more than 1.1 billion internet subscribers, says its directives to platforms target unlawful or misleading content and respect lawful expression.
The Delhi Police, which is controlled by the federal government, sent notices to take down the X accounts of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and India’s Software Freedom Law Center, called SFLC.in, according to a copy of the directives posted by IFF on X on Tuesday.
The police alleged the groups defamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu nationalist group from which Modi’s ruling party emerged. The orders referred to posts by the digital rights groups about a purported October 29 legal notice they received in the name of the RSS, calling for the groups to stop opposing content-blocking directives from the government.
Such “posts are defamatory towards the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,” read one order signed by Delhi Police special commissioner (crime), Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal.
Reuters could not independently verify the directives.
X, the RSS and Delhi Police did not respond to requests for comment.
“Those who expose censorship must not become its targets,” Amnesty said in a post on X.
The IFF said it would challenge the requests in court unless they were withdrawn, while SFLC.in described the requests as unlawful and disproportionate.
The two accounts were still active on Wednesday afternoon. The IFF and SFLC.in use their X accounts to publicise blocking orders, including recent restrictions on accounts and posts related to anti-government protests, and their legal challenges to them.
(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Kalra and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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