Elon Musk’s X bans record 23 lakh Twitter accounts in India for policy violations in June-July period

In the span of June and July, X Corp, under the leadership of Elon Musk and formerly known as Twitter, executed a record-breaking ban on 2,395,495 accounts in India. The primary reasons for these bans were associated with the promotion of child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity.

In addition, the micro-blogging giant removed 1,772 accounts that were found to be promoting terrorism within the country.

Adhering to the new IT Rules of 2021, X provided its monthly report, indicating its compliance. During the same timeframe, the company received a total of 3,340 user complaints from India through its grievance redressal mechanisms. However, it's worth noting that the report was published later than usual, deviating from X Transparency's usual practice of releasing it on the first day of the month, akin to other social media platforms like Meta and WhatsApp.

When attempting to access the IT Rules report for the May-June 2023 period, a message displayed, "Looks like this page doesn't exist. Here's a picture of a poodle sitting in a chair for your trouble."

Furthermore, between June 26 and July 25, X enforced bans on an additional 1,851,022 accounts in India. Among these actions, 2,865 accounts were taken down due to their involvement in promoting terrorism on the platform within the country. During this period, the platform received 2,056 complaints from Indian users through its grievance redressal mechanisms.

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Notably, X handled 49 grievances that were associated with appeals against account suspensions between June 26 and July 25. Out of these, one account suspension was overturned following a review of the specific circumstances. The rest of the reported accounts remained suspended as per the company's decision. Additionally, X received 14 requests related to general questions about Twitter accounts during the same reporting period.

Among the complaints received from India, the highest number pertained to abuse and harassment (1,783), followed by cases of hateful conduct (54), privacy infringements (48), and incidents of child sexual exploitation (46).

These actions and disclosures fall under the ambit of the new IT Rules of 2021, which require major digital and social media platforms, boasting over 5 million users, to issue monthly compliance reports.

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