India has instructed Elon Musk’s social media platform X that any new features must comply with local regulations, as the platform introduces transparency measures to disclose government content takedown requests amid ongoing tensions over censorship laws.
India has told Elon Musk’s social media platform X that any new feature it rolls out must still comply with local law, after the company said government requests to remove content would become publicly visible. A government official, quoted by Aaj Tak, said that however X adjusts its system, it has to follow “the law of the land” while operating in India.
The disclosure appears to be part of a wider transparency push by X. According to the company’s announcement, the new mechanism would show users when a government asks for a post or account to be taken down. Musk said on X that such requests would no longer remain hidden, framing the change as a way of making censorship more visible.
The timing matters because India already has one of the most aggressive takedown regimes in the major internet markets. An industry report published in February said the government requires platforms to remove content judged illegal under Indian law within three hours of a formal order, a deadline that some executives say is tighter than international norms. That backdrop helps explain why any change in X’s moderation and disclosure systems is being watched closely by regulators and the wider tech sector.
The dispute also sits against a history of legal friction between X and the Indian state. In March 2025, reports said the company had gone to the Karnataka High Court challenging the use of Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act for content-removal demands, arguing that the provision was being used to sidestep proper legal process. Separate reporting in May said the government had ordered X to block more than 8,000 accounts in India, including those linked to news organisations, with X describing blanket blocking as censorship and urging affected users to seek court remedies. The latest exchange suggests that any transparency feature will be assessed not just as a product update, but as another test of how far global platforms can push back against India’s content-control rules.
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