In January, an old post on Elon Musk's social media platform, X, became a concern for police in the Indian city of Satara. Written in 2023, the short message from an account with a few hundred followers described a senior ruling-party politician as "useless".
"This post and content are likely to create serious communal tension," inspector Jitendra Shahane wrote in a content-removal notice marked "CONFIDENTIAL" and addressed to X.
The post, which remains online, is among hundreds cited by X in a lawsuit it filed in March against India's government, challenging a sweeping crackdown on social media content by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's administration.
Since 2023, India has ramped up efforts to police the internet by allowing many more officials to file takedown orders and to submit them directly to tech firms through a government website launched in October.
X argues India's actions are illegal and unconstitutional, and that they trample free speech by empowering scores of government agencies and thousands of police to suppress legitimate criticism of public officials.
India contends in court documents that its approach tackles a proliferation of unlawful content and ensures accountability online. It says many tech companies, including Meta (META.O), opens new tab and Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google, support its actions. Both companies declined to comment for this story.
Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist, has clashed with authorities in the United States, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere over compliance and takedown demands. But as regulators globally weigh free-speech protections against concerns about harmful content, Musk's case against Modi's government in the Karnataka High Court targets the entire basis for tightened internet censorship in India, one of X's biggest user bases. Musk said in 2023 that the South Asian nation had "more promise than any large country in the world" and that Modi had pushed him to invest there.
Reuters
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