X Corp bans over 23 lakh accounts for policy violations in India

The micro-blogging platform also took down 1,772 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform in India

New Delhi: Elon Musk-run X Corp (formerly Twitter) has banned a record 23,95,495 accounts in the ‘June-July’ period in India, mostly for promoting child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity.

Between May 26 and June 25, X banned 5,44,473 accounts in India. The micro-blogging platform also took down 1,772 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform in the country. X, in its monthly report in compliance with the new IT Rules, 2021, said that it received 3,340 complaints from users in India in the same time frame through its grievance redressal mechanisms.

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The report came about a week late as it did not appear on the portal on the first day of the month. X Transparency typically posts the report on the first day of the month, like other social media platforms like Meta and WhatsApp. “Looks like this page doesn’t exist. Here’s a picture of a poodle sitting in a chair for your trouble,” read the message when clicked on the IT Rules report for the May-June 2023 period.

Moreover, between June 26 and July 25, X banned 1,851,022 accounts and also took down 2,865 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform in the country. The microblogging platform received 2,056 complaints from users in India in the same time frame through its grievance redressal mechanisms.

In addition, X processed 49 grievances which were appealing account suspensions between June 26 and July 25. “We overturned 1 of these account suspensions after reviewing the specifics of the situation. The remaining reported accounts remain suspended,” said the company.

“We received 14 requests related to general questions about Twitter accounts during this reporting period,” it added. Most complaints from India were about abuse/harassment (1,783), followed by hateful conduct (54), privacy infringement (48), and child sexual exploitation (46).

Under the new IT Rules 2021, big digital and social media platforms, with more than 5 million users, have to publish monthly compliance reports.