X Tells Indian Court Fake Orders Demanded Blocking Of Free Speech Groups

News Desk

NEW DELHI: Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, informed the Delhi High Court on Friday that directives demanding the removal of accounts belonging to two prominent Indian free-speech advocacy groups were fraudulent and submitted by an impersonator posing as a senior police official.

The bogus orders, submitted via X’s online reporting tool under the guise of a senior Delhi Police officer, requested the immediate blocking of accounts managed by the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) and the Software Freedom Law Centre, India (SFLC). The fraudulent requests alleged that the rights organizations had defamed the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological parent organization of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “It turns out this was somebody playing an impostor, somebody impersonating Delhi police who has sent this,” a legal representative for X told the court following an internal corporate investigation.

The revelation comes amid growing scrutiny over digital governance, online censorship, and state surveillance in India, home to over 1.1 billion internet subscribers. Digital rights activists and international civil society organizations have consistently voiced serious concern over India’s stringent legal frameworks regulating online content, warning that arbitrary takedown mechanisms, executive overreach, and legal pressure are increasingly utilized to suppress political dissent and choke independent speech across major digital platforms.

While Delhi Police officials did not immediately respond to official requests for comment regarding the security breach, judicial authorities and cybercrime specialists expect further probes into the origin of the impersonation attempt. The Delhi High Court is anticipated to review security verification protocols and online reporting mechanisms to prevent malicious actors from abusing automated content moderation channels to target constitutional rights defenders and civil society actors in the country.