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

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

• 0:01
  India has ordered X to block access to more than 8000
• 0:05
  accounts. Or face.
• 0:06
  Legal punishment for its local employees.
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  Now X complied with the directive but called the action
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  censorship, noting that it received little to no evidence
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  or justification in most cases. This incident comes amid growing
• 0:20
  India Pakistan tensions following a deadly attack in
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  Kashmir and raises serious questions about how far
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  governments can go in pressuring platforms to restrict content.
• 0:31
  Welcome to the Elon Musk podcast.
• 0:33
  I'm your host, Will Walden. Your ultimate authority for
• 0:38
  daily Elon Musk news. Exploring the world's biggest
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  ideas with your host Will Walden.
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  There's something new everyday. X confirmed on Thursday that the
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  Indian government issued multiple executive orders
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  demanding it blocked thousands of user accounts in India.
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  The platform's global government affairs team stated that India
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  threatened significant fines and imprisonment for the company's
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  employees based in the country if it refused to comply.
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  No X responded by limiting access to the accounts inside
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  India while keeping them active in the rest of the world.
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  Now. The orders arrived after a
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  recent terror attack in the Indian administered Kashmir
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  killed 26 people, triggering renewed military friction
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  between India and Pakistan. And the Indian government's
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  response has included digital censorship of accounts tied to
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  Pakistani figures, media and public figures.
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  Now officials accused these accounts of sharing what they
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  termed as provocative or inflammatory content.
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  The Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
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  also took action against Pakistani content on YouTube,
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  blocking over a dozen channels since the Kashmiri incident.
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  These included major Pakistani news outlets with wide
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  followings. Now, the government said it
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  acted under national scrutiny laws or security laws but did
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  not make specific posts public in its jurisdiction.
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  Now, Meta separately restricted a major Muslim news page on
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  Instagram within India. The page's founder said the
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  removal came at the government's request, again with little
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  explanation. This signals that the censorship
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  is extending beyond X to other global tech companies operating
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  in the country now. X said it strongly disagreed
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  with the Indian orders but stated it had no realistic
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  choice but to follow them to protect its employees.
• 2:31
  The company claimed the move amounted to direct censorship of
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  both current and future content. It also emphasized that it had
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  received no clear legal explanation from many of the
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  accounts flagged. Now.
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  X pointed out that in several cases, the government failed to
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  identify any individual posts that violated Indian law.
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  The company said many of the orders lacked supporting
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  documentation or context. Now, this lack of transparency
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  has made it harder for the platform to challenge the
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  government's actions under Indian law.
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  Now, the issue is especially complex because of Elon Musk's
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  growing business ties in India. Musk met with the Indian Prime
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  Minister Modi in April to discuss deeper cooperation
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  between his companies and Indian tech sectors.
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  Tesla is planning to enter the Indian car market with showrooms
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  and Delhi and Mumbai, and Starlink is awaiting regulatory
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  approval to launch satellite Internet services in India.
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  Now, this puts Elon Musk in a difficult situation.
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  On one hand, X claims to stand for free speech and open
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  Internet access, and on the other hand, Musk has business
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  priorities in India that require him to maintain a working
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  relationship with the Modi government.
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  Of these recent action raise a pressing question, can global
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  tech platforms maintain their principles while trying to
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  expand into countries with strict information controls?
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  For users in India, this means that because it limits the
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  content they can access online based on opaque decisions for
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  journalists and human rights groups, the suppression of
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  international and regional news sources weakens accountability.
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  Now for platform employees, though, this introduces legal
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  risk tied to decisions they may have little power to change.
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  The Indian government's legal pressure on X may set a
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  precedent for future interactions with foreign tech
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  companies. If the current pattern holds,
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  any social media firm that wants to do business in India will
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  have to accept the possibility of orders to block content
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  without detailed jurisdiction. Now the risk is that this
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  normalizes government control over what users in India are
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  allowed to see or say online. X's legal options in India
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  remain unclear. The platform has limited paths
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  to appeal executive orders issued under India's information
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  laws, especially when national security is cited.
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  Musk's companies may push for policy changes beyond closed
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  doors, but public challenges appear unlikely now.
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  The conflict between India's censorship orders and Musk's
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  global business plans will likely continue, though the Modi
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  government wants tighter control over online narratives,
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  especially during moments of heightened national tension.
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  Musk's platforms want to maintain their presence in one
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  of the world's largest markets, but that requires compliance
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  with increasingly rigid demands. Hey, thank you so much for
• 5:21
  listening today. I really do appreciate your
• 5:23
  support. If you could take a second and
• 5:25
  hit the subscribe or the follow button on whatever podcast
• 5:28
  platform that you're listening on right now, I greatly
• 5:31
  appreciate it. It helps out the show
• 5:33
  tremendously. And you'll.
• 5:34
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  less to get you caught up quickly.
• 5:40
  And please, if you want to support the show even more, go
• 5:43
  to patreon.com slash. Stage 0.
• 5:47
  And please take care of yourselves and each other, and
• 5:50
  I'll see you tomorrow.