Elon Musk says India ordered it to block 8,000 accounts or face jail for local staff

X says India ordered it to block 8,000 accounts or face jail for local staff

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
India has ordered X to block access to more than 8000
accounts. Or face.
Legal punishment for its local employees.
Now X complied with the directive but called the action
censorship, noting that it received little to no evidence
or justification in most cases. This incident comes amid growing
India Pakistan tensions following a deadly attack in

(00:23):
Kashmir and raises serious questions about how far
governments can go in pressuringplatforms to restrict content.
Welcome to the Elon Musk podcast.
I'm your host, Will Walden. Your ultimate authority for
daily Elon Musk news. Exploring the world's biggest
ideas with your host Will Walden.

(00:45):
There's something new everyday. X confirmed on Thursday that the
Indian government issued multiple executive orders
demanding it blocked thousands of user accounts in India.
The platform's global governmentaffairs team stated that India
threatened significant fines andimprisonment for the company's
employees based in the country if it refused to comply.

(01:08):
No X responded by limiting access to the accounts inside
India while keeping them active in the rest of the world.
Now. The orders arrived after a
recent terror attack in the Indian administered Kashmir
killed 26 people, triggering renewed military friction
between India and Pakistan. And the Indian government's
response has included digital censorship of accounts tied to

(01:30):
Pakistani figures, media and public figures.
Now officials accused these accounts of sharing what they
termed as provocative or inflammatory content.
The Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
also took action against Pakistani content on YouTube,
blocking over a dozen channels since the Kashmiri incident.

(01:52):
These included major Pakistani news outlets with wide
followings. Now, the government said it
acted under national scrutiny laws or security laws but did
not make specific posts public in its jurisdiction.
Now, Meta separately restricted a major Muslim news page on
Instagram within India. The page's founder said the
removal came at the government'srequest, again with little

(02:14):
explanation. This signals that the censorship
is extending beyond X to other global tech companies operating
in the country now. X said it strongly disagreed
with the Indian orders but stated it had no realistic
choice but to follow them to protect its employees.
The company claimed the move amounted to direct censorship of
both current and future content.It also emphasized that it had

(02:38):
received no clear legal explanation from many of the
accounts flagged. Now.
X pointed out that in several cases, the government failed to
identify any individual posts that violated Indian law.
The company said many of the orders lacked supporting
documentation or context. Now, this lack of transparency
has made it harder for the platform to challenge the

(02:59):
government's actions under Indian law.
Now, the issue is especially complex because of Elon Musk's
growing business ties in India. Musk met with the Indian Prime
Minister Modi in April to discuss deeper cooperation
between his companies and Indiantech sectors.
Tesla is planning to enter the Indian car market with showrooms
and Delhi and Mumbai, and Starlink is awaiting regulatory

(03:21):
approval to launch satellite Internet services in India.
Now, this puts Elon Musk in a difficult situation.
On one hand, X claims to stand for free speech and open
Internet access, and on the other hand, Musk has business
priorities in India that requirehim to maintain a working
relationship with the Modi government.

(03:41):
Of these recent action raise a pressing question, can global
tech platforms maintain their principles while trying to
expand into countries with strict information controls?
For users in India, this means that because it limits the
content they can access online based on opaque decisions for
journalists and human rights groups, the suppression of

(04:03):
international and regional news sources weakens accountability.
Now for platform employees, though, this introduces legal
risk tied to decisions they may have little power to change.
The Indian government's legal pressure on X may set a
precedent for future interactions with foreign tech
companies. If the current pattern holds,
any social media firm that wantsto do business in India will

(04:26):
have to accept the possibility of orders to block content
without detailed jurisdiction. Now the risk is that this
normalizes government control over what users in India are
allowed to see or say online. X's legal options in India
remain unclear. The platform has limited paths
to appeal executive orders issued under India's information

(04:47):
laws, especially when national security is cited.
Musk's companies may push for policy changes beyond closed
doors, but public challenges appear unlikely now.
The conflict between India's censorship orders and Musk's
global business plans will likely continue, though the Modi
government wants tighter controlover online narratives,
especially during moments of heightened national tension.

(05:10):
Musk's platforms want to maintain their presence in one
of the world's largest markets, but that requires compliance
with increasingly rigid demands.Hey, thank you so much for
listening today. I really do appreciate your
support. If you could take a second and
hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly

(05:31):
appreciate it. It helps out the show
tremendously. And you'll.
Never miss an episode and each episode is about 10 minutes or
less to get you caught up quickly.
And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
to patreon.com slash. Stage 0.
And please take care of yourselves and each other, and
I'll see you tomorrow.