X says police order demanding removal of Indian free-speech groups’ accounts was fake

Police orders asking X to block online accounts of two of India's most prominent free speech groups were fake, the social media company told an Indian court on Friday, days after the purported content removal requests sparked a public outcry.

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The orders, submitted through X's online reporting form in the name of a senior Delhi police officer, sought the removal of the accounts of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and the Software Freedom Law Centre, India (SFLC.in), claiming they had defamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Hindu nationalist group from which Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party emerged.

"It turns out this was somebody playing an impostor, somebody impersonating Delhi police who has sent this," a lawyer for X told the Delhi High Court, saying the company had conducted an internal investigation.

Delhi police did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Free-speech activists have repeatedly said that India's strict content removal regulations are a way to curb dissent in the world's most populous nation.

India, which ​has more than 1.1 billion internet subscribers, says the directives target unlawful or misleading content and respect lawful expression.

The purported takedown orders invoked Indian rules that require platforms to act on the notices within three hours. X forwarded them to the affected users before establishing that they were fake.

IFF had asked the court to quash the orders, which sparked an uproar on social media this week, with Amnesty and India's main opposition party contesting their legality.

The groups also received legal notices last week, purportedly on behalf of the RSS, that demanded they stop criticising and documenting government blocking orders, according to the petition.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus and Kate Mayberry)

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