On September 24, social media behemoth X, formerly known as Twitter, challenged the Indian government’s order to block an account, Hindutva Watch, in the Delhi High Court. The social media company argued that the Indian government provided inadequate justifications to block the account.
The Hindutva Watch account is operated by a man named Raqib Hameed Naik, who is based out of the United States, as per his bio on X. The account was blocked in January 2024, following which a report published by Disinfo Lab revealed it had a direct link with Pakistan’s ruling party. Reportedly, the portal used a map that was embedded by one Sardar Adil Kayani, the same man who ran PML-N’s propaganda in Pakistan.
Naik had sued the centre and asked the Delhi High Court to issue an order restoring his account. X is a party in the case.
Supporting Raqib’s position, X claimed that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) didn’t provide reasons for the blocking order issued under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act that was issued on January 15 this year.
The account was withheld in India after gaining notoriety for its lopsided coverage of events in India, including its practice of distorting facts and maligning Hindu leaders who unabashedly wear their Hindu identity on their sleeves, most notably leaders such as T Raja Singh, Kajal Hindustani, and several others who have been championing the cause of Hindus.
The account often used ambiguous expressions such as “extreme hate speech” without bothering to explain how spitting facts is the dissemination of hatred, was routinely quoted by usual suspects, including ‘fact-checker’ Mohammed Zubair and members of the leftwing ecosystem, for whom projecting India in a bad light has been a constant exercise ever since PM Modi came to power in 2014 general elections.
