Amid rising tensions between India and Pakistan, the X (Twitter) accounts of independent media organisations – Maktoob Media, The Kashmiriyat and Free Press Kashmir – were withheld in India on Thursday, May 8. The move came following orders from the Indian government to X to block over 8,000 accounts in India, “including accounts belonging to international news organisations.”
The accounts of these media organisations were abruptly blocked in India without any official communication, drawing sharp criticism from press freedom advocates.
While The Kashmiriyat and Free Press Kashmir are Kashmir-based organisations actively reporting the latest tensions between India and Pakistan, Maktoob Media is a Kerala-based organisation.
Terming the action as an assault on press freedom, Maktoob Media’s founding editor Aslah Kayyalakkath in a statement said, “Maktoob pledges to continue its crucial work at a time when truth is becoming a casualty.”
He urged readers and supporters to continue sharing reports from Maktoob’s website, writing, “At this hour of crisis, we ask our allies to share links from our website to help people access our reporting. We are many, many more than them.”
The Kashmiriyat issued a similar statement, calling the move deeply painful. “This feels like an erasure — of years of work, of the countless hours we poured into honest, often difficult journalism,” the outlet said in a post on Instagram. “To be silenced without warning — hurts, deeply.”
Press associations are yet to issue a statement regarding these developments.
X confirmed that it received executive orders from the Indian government requiring it to block over 8,000 accounts in India. The orders include demands to block access in India to accounts belonging to international news organisations and prominent X users, the statement read.
The social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk said that in many instances they did not receive any evidence of justification to block the accounts. While it announced that it would comply with the orders and block these accounts in India alone, X stated that these actions amounted to censorship and went against the right to free speech.
In a simultaneous development, the Nagpur police on Thursday, May 8, arrested Rejaz M, a contributor writer at Maktoob Media. He was arrested on charges of waging war against India among others.
Following India’s retaliatory strikes on Pakistan under Operation Sindoor, the Government of India has also issued a directive to OTT platforms, streaming media services, and intermediaries operating in India to immediately discontinue Pakistan-origin content. This includes web-series, films, songs, and podcasts.
The advisory was condemned by Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), a non-profit organisation working to protect freedom of expression, privacy and net neutrality.
In a statement, IFF said that the advisory issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting calls for a “vague form of censorship.”
IFF warned that the vague and sweeping nature of the advisory would lead to over-compliance and self-censorship among media and streaming platforms.