Social media platform X on Tuesday said it has withheld some posts in India containing political speech from elected politicians, political parties, and candidates for office after the Election Commission issued takedown ordered.
"In compliance with the orders, we have withheld these posts for the remainder of the election period; however, we disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts and political speech in general," X said in a statement.
The social media platform, owned by Elon Musk, said that it has notified the affected users and published the takedown orders in the interest of transparency.
"We call on the Election Commission to publish all of its takedown orders going forward," it added.
As per a report in PTI, the EC ordered X to take down select posts of YSR Congress, AAP, N Chandrababu Naidu and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary for violation of model code of conduct.
The platform also shared the pictures of the EC orders stating that the tweets have been violating clause (2) of Part 1 "General Conduct" of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for guidance of political parties and candidates.
The orders were issued on April 2 and April 3 and a follow-up email was sent by the poll panel on April 10 in which it cited a violation of the voluntary code of ethics if 'X' fails to remove the four posts reported to it.
As per the report, the poll body found that the objectionable posts were in violation of the model code of conduct that bars criticising political parties based on any aspects of the private life of leaders or workers of other parties that are not connected with public activities or based on unverified allegations or distorted facts.