The Election Commission of India has mandated social media company X to block numerous posts featuring political discussions from elected officials, political parties, and candidates.
This directive comes as India moves towards it general election, with nearly a billion eligible voters ready to participate.
X on Tuesday said that it has restricted certain posts in India containing political speech by elected politicians, political parties, and candidates, following orders from the country's election commission.
The Elon Musk-owned company however called on the poll agency to publish its orders to public going forward.
"The Election Commission of India has issued takedown orders requiring X to act on posts containing political speech shared from elected politicians, political parties and candidates for office.
"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 through its Global Government Affairs handle.
The company said that it has notified the affected users as it shared the EC order "interest of transparency" along with the post.
The four posts in contention were linked with political entities -- the YSRCP, AAP, TDP President, and the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.
The requests to take down the posts were made through the EC Under Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh in letters dated April 2 and 3.
India will conduct its general election in seven phases beginning April 19. The grand polling exercise in which several billions will exercise their franchise will conclude on June 1.
The results, which will decide who the country's prime minister is going to be, will be announced on June 4.
