X withholds some political posts after election commission order

X withholds post: Social media platform X, on Tuesday, announced its decision to withhold certain posts in India that contained political speech from elected politicians, political parties, and candidates for office, following orders from the country's election commission. X, owned by Elon Musk, expressed disagreement with the election commission's directives.

In response to this situation, X urged the Election Commission to make all of its takedown orders publicly available moving forward. 

“We have notified the affected users and in the interest of transparency, we are publishing the takedown orders here. We call on the Election Commission to publish all of its takedown orders going forward,” wrote X’s Global Affairs handle, sharing the official documents and requesting the ECI to make all its takedown orders public. 

According to the orders shared by X, the ECI has requested to withhold the posts that include comments on the private life of Candidates or criticism based on unverified allegations or distortion. 

"No aspect of the private life, not connected with the public activities, of the leaders or workers of other parties is to be criticized. Low-level personal attacks to insult the rivals shall not be made," stated 

The development comes the nation with nearly a billion eligible voters, prepares to embark on the world's largest electoral exercise starting this Friday.

(With Reuters inputs)