X's Massive Crackdown In India: Social Media Platform Bans 2 Lakh Accounts Nationwide For Explicit Content

Elon Musk-run X Corp banned a record 2,31,215 accounts in India between December 26 and January 25, mostly for promoting child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity.

The micro-blogging platform, going through a churning under Musk, also took down 1,945 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform in the country.

In total, X banned 2,33,160 accounts in the reporting period in the country. X, in its monthly report in compliance with the new IT Rules, 2021, said that it received 2,525 complaints from users in India in the same time frame through its grievance redressal mechanisms.

In addition, X processed 40 grievances which were appealing account suspensions.

"We overturned 9 of these account suspensions after reviewing the specifics of the situation. The remaining reported accounts remain suspended," said the company.

"We received 19 requests related to general questions about accounts during this reporting period," it added.

Most complaints from India were about ban evasion (967), followed by abuse/harassment (684), sensitive adult content (363), and hateful conduct (313).

Between November 26 and December 25, X banned 2,27,600 accounts in India.

The micro-blogging platform also took down 2,032 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform in the country.

Meanwhile, a new report from the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) has said that X is providing premium, paid services to accounts for two leaders of a US-designated terrorist group and several other organisations sanctioned by the government.

The report identified over a dozen X accounts for US-sanctioned entities that had a blue checkmark, which requires the purchase of a premium subscription.