NEW DELHI — Fact-checker and journalist Mohammed Zubair has revealed an email from social media giant X (formerly Twitter), indicating that the Delhi Police have flagged his account, requesting the platform to either remove specific content or suspend his entire account.
Zubair, the co-founder of the fact-checking platform Alt News, is well-known for debunking false information on social media and has amassed 1.1 million followers on X. The flagged content allegedly violates India’s Information Technology Act, according to the notification from X, reported Vartha Bharati.
The email, which Zubair shared on his account, is a standard notification sent to users when the platform receives content removal requests. It states, “In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that X has received a request from Delhi Police regarding your X account, @zoo_bear, that claims the following content violates India’s Information Technology Act.”
The specifics of the content in question were not disclosed in the notification, leaving it unclear whether the entire account or particular posts are being flagged as violative.
Zubair commented on the situation by tweeting, “They want X to take down my account as it violates India’s Information Technology Act.”
This is not the first time Zubair has faced legal challenges. In 2022, he was arrested by the Delhi Police for a 2018 tweet that included a screenshot from a 1983 Hindi movie, which was claimed to have “hurt religious sentiments.” He faced six cases during his incarceration until the Supreme Court granted him bail.
In a related context, Twitter’s former owner Jack Dorsey revealed in a 2023 online interview that the Narendra Modi government had made numerous requests during the farmers’ protests to delete content posted by journalists critical of the government. Dorsey also mentioned threats of shutting down Twitter in India and raiding employees’ homes.
Since Elon Musk’s acquisition, X has reportedly become more compliant with government orders regarding censorship and surveillance, including those from India.
