New Delhi: Elon Musk-run X Corp, the owner of the social networking service X (formerly Twitter), has banned a record 2,31,215 accounts in India between December 26 and January 25, mostly for promoting child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity, according to its monthly report in compliance with the new IT Rules, 2021.
The report, published on X’s website on February 1, also revealed that the company took down 1,945 accounts for promoting terrorism on its platform in the country, in line with its global policy against violent extremism. In total, X banned 2,33,160 accounts in the reporting period in the country, marking a significant increase from the previous month, when it banned 2,27,600 accounts.
The report said that X received 2,525 complaints from users in India in the same time frame through grievance redressal mechanisms, including a web form, an email address, and a postal address. The complaints covered various issues such as account suspension, content removal, verification, and privacy.
In addition, X processed 40 grievances which were appealing account suspensions. “We overturned 9 of these account suspensions after reviewing the situation’s specifics. The remaining reported accounts remain suspended,” said the company.
“We received 19 requests related to general questions about accounts during this reporting period,” it added.
The report also provided a breakdown of the types of complaints received from India. Most complaints were about ban evasion (967), followed by abuse/harassment (684), sensitive adult content (363), and hateful conduct (313). Other categories included impersonation (83), spam (64), and intellectual property (51).
X said that it responded to the complaints within the stipulated time frame of 15 days, as per the IT Rules, 2021, which came into effect in May 2021. The rules require social media intermediaries to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person, and a resident grievance officer in India, and to publish monthly reports on the complaints received and the actions taken.
X also said that it cooperated with the law enforcement authorities in India and provided information in response to 18 legal requests, out of which 11 were emergency requests and 7 were routine requests. The company said that it notified the affected users of the requests unless prohibited by law.
