Elon Musk-led X Corp (formerly Twitter) has made headlines by banning an astonishing 23,95,495 accounts in India during the ‘June-July’ period, primarily due to violations related to child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity. This significant move follows the banning of 5,44,473 accounts in India between May 26 and June 25.
The micro-blogging giant has also acted against 1,772 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform within the country. In accordance with the new IT Rules, 2021, X released its monthly report, disclosing that it received 3,340 complaints from Indian users during the same time frame via its grievance redressal mechanisms.
It’s noteworthy that this report was delayed by about a week, as it wasn’t initially posted on the platform on the first day of the month. Usually, X Transparency publishes the report on the first day, in line with other social media platforms like Meta and WhatsApp.
Interestingly, a peculiar message greeted users when they attempted to access the IT Rules report for the May-June 2023 period: “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 cracked down on a staggering 1,851,022 accounts and also removed 2,865 accounts for their involvement in promoting terrorism within the Indian context. During this time, the microblogging site received 2,056 complaints from Indian users, all of which were processed through its grievance redressal mechanisms.
In addition, X addressed 49 grievances related to account suspensions between June 26 and July 25. The company shared, “We overturned 1 of these account suspensions after reviewing the specifics of the situation. The remaining reported accounts remain suspended.”
During this reporting period, the platform also fielded 14 requests related to general questions about Twitter accounts.
Among the complaints received from India, the majority centered around issues of abuse/harassment (1,783), followed by reports of hateful conduct (54), privacy infringements (48), and instances of child sexual exploitation (46). The new IT Rules 2021 mandate that significant digital and social media platforms with more than 5 million users must publish monthly compliance reports.
