On the eve of holding the largest electoral exercise in the world, with almost 1 billion voters eligible to vote starting next Friday (19), India finds itself in the midst of a controversy involving freedom of expression and censorship.
The social network X (formerly Twitter), owned by billionaire Elon Musk, was forced by the country’s Electoral Commission (CEI) to remove posts containing political speeches by elected politicians, political parties and candidates for office in these elections.
The Election Commission’s order, which resulted in the removal of several posts by political leaders and parties, including a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, the Indian People’s Party, BJP, was met with disagreement by X. The platform argued that the Freedom of expression should extend to these posts and political speech in general.
“The Election Commission of India has issued takedown orders requiring X to act on posts containing political speech shared by elected politicians, political parties and candidates for public office. In accordance with orders, we 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”, stated X through a statement made on his account for communicating with governments.
The platform said it has notified the profiles affected by the decision and also appealed to the Election Commission of India to publish all its removal orders going forward in the name of transparency.
“We have notified affected users and, in the interest of transparency, are publishing the takedown orders here. We call on the Electoral Commission to publish all its withdrawal orders from now on,” said X.
With the election approaching, which should last until June 1st, India has been increasing its repression against those who think differently from the positions defended by the current government.
Recently, the country has experienced a new wave of repression led by Hindu nationalists, who are the electoral base of current Prime Minister Modi. According to the Christian NGO Portas Abertas, this group gave an ultimatum to Christian institutes, churches and schools in the country to remove elements that referred to their religion.
The group also demanded that priests and nuns who work in Christian schools stop wearing cassocks and performing religious practices in educational institutions, such as prayers.
Musk is expected to visit India soon, where he will meet Modi. According to information from the agency Reutersthe South African billionaire and the Indian prime minister are expected to talk about plans to manufacture Tesla electric vehicles in the country.