Karnataka Home Minister's damage control after Siddaramaiah tried to slap cop
Social media restrictions on several Pakistani celebrities and news channels were lifted following a review tied to Operation Sindoor. Government sources say the accounts had shown a prolonged pause in anti-India content. The move has sparked debate over the status of the operation and the risks of renewed access.
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NDTV
23 minutes ago
- NDTV
All Pakistani X Handles Blocked In India, Ban On YouTube Channels Stays
New Delhi: All Pakistani accounts on X have been blocked in India after briefly being accessible in the past few days, official sources confirmed on Thursday. The move comes in continuation of India's escalating digital and diplomatic restrictions against Pakistan following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 tourists were killed by terrorists affiliated with the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba's proxy, The Resistance Front. After the attack, India responded with a series of retaliatory measures, including the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty and the launch of Operation Sindoor, targeting nine terror launch pads inside Pakistan. Among the measures was a wide-reaching crackdown on Pakistani media and social media content -- encompassing accounts of actors, cricketers, and internet influencers -- across Instagram, X, YouTube, and other platforms. Although several of these accounts had recently become accessible again, prompting criticism and questions about their restoration, they are now re-blocked. When users in India try to access these profiles, they are met with a message stating: "Account Withheld. (Name of the account) has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand." On Wednesday, users briefly gained access to X and Instagram accounts of several Pakistani actors and internet personalities, including Mawra Hocane, Saba Qamar, Ahad Raza Mir, Yumna Zaidi, and Danish Taimoor, as well as YouTube channels run by former cricketers Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar. However, accounts belonging to Mahira Khan, Fawad Khan, and Hania Aamir remained blocked throughout. Additionally, the ban on YouTube also remains, sources said. Earlier in May, the Indian government issued an advisory directing all OTT platforms and digital intermediaries to discontinue content originating from Pakistan. The advisory, dated May 8, 2025, and issued under the IT Rules, 2021, stated that "content hosted or streamed must not threaten India's sovereignty, integrity, national security, or public order." It explicitly instructed media platforms to remove "web-series, films, songs, podcasts and other streaming content" produced in Pakistan, whether on subscription-based or free platforms. Following the brief restoration of access to some Pakistani accounts, the All Indian Cine Workers Association (AICWA) made an urgent appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, demanding a total blackout of all Pakistani social media presence in India. The association called the visibility of such accounts an "insult to the sacrifice of our martyred soldiers" and an "emotional assault" on Indians who have lost loved ones to terror attacks orchestrated by Pakistan. Citing major terror incidents like 26/11, Pulwama, Uri, and the recent Pahalgam attack, AICWA labelled Pakistan a "terrorist nation" and condemned Pakistani artists who, according to them, have "shamelessly spoken against India instead of showing remorse." In their appeal, AICWA put forth three specific demands -- a complete digital blackout of all Pakistani accounts and media channels in India; a ban on all future collaborations or promotions involving Pakistani nationals; and a permanent cultural disconnect from Pakistan as a tribute to the Indian Armed Forces and the families of martyrs.
New Indian Express
34 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Allahabad HC denies bail to man for posts against PM, Armed Forces during Operation Sindoor
LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court has refused bail to a person accused of posting objectionable content on social media against the Prime Minister and the Indian Armed Forces during Operation Sindoor, following the Phalagam massacre. A single-judge bench, comprising Justice Arun Kumar Deshwal, observed that the freedom of speech and expression guaranteed under the Constitution of India does not extend to acts that disrespect the high dignitaries of the country and create disharmony among citizens. Justice Deshwal stated that it had become a trend among certain groups to misuse social media platforms under the guise of freedom of speech by making nasty and unfounded allegations against dignitaries and spreading disharmony and hatred among communities. The petitioner, Ashraf Khan alias Nisrat, had been booked under Sections 152 and 197 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for allegedly posting edited videos on his Facebook account during the recent India-Pakistan face-off following the Phalagam massacre. According to the prosecution, the petitioner, who had moved the High Court seeking bail, allegedly posted a video showing the Prime Minister walking next to a donkey pulling a cart carrying an aircraft, later showing him apologising to Pakistan.
Hindustan Times
38 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Delhi's multilateralism plank needs tweaking
On June 26, the defence ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) concluded in the eastern Chinese coastal city of Qingdao without a joint statement. India had refused to sign on as the draft document avoided mention of the Pahalgam terrorist attack in April while highlighting terrorist incidents in Pakistan. India argued that signing the document would undermine its positions and policies on State-sponsored terrorism. This bias highlighted by defence minister Rajnath Singh underscores China's efforts to shield its 'iron brother' and ally, Pakistan. While the disagreement over the issue casts a shadow over high-level meetings of SCO hosted by China as the rotating president, it also reflects a deeper problem of how India-China differences are now at the heart of their interactions in multilateral institutions and, thus, of geopolitics. SCO and Brics, which is set to have its summit over the weekend in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, have been geopolitically significant from their very conception. However, their focus was on what Chinese official statements often identify as 'practical cooperation,' which included cooperation in economics and trade, technology, counter-terrorism, and sharing experiences in dealing with governance challenges to coordinating positions in multilateral trade negotiations at the World Trade Organisation and International Monetary Fund and on climate change. This focus allowed the members to avoid geopolitical divisions. While these are still significant objectives, China's strategies in these organisations have changed in the last decade. In Communist Party of China General Secretary Xi Jinping's 'new era', Beijing has started to redefine the role and identity of SCO and Brics, yoking them more closely to its own particular domestic and international objectives. It has, thus, used these institutions to promote and validate a strongly anti-liberal Chinese model of political and economic development globally as well as to showcase Chinese foreign policy initiatives like the Belt and Road Initiative and the three global initiatives – on development, security and civilisation – launched since 2021. China has aggressively promoted the expansion of the membership of the SCO and Brics as a way of countering the weight of Western-dominated regional and global institutions and it now increasingly wants to utilise these platforms to articulate significant geopolitical issues aligning with its own positions and interests. For example, China has hinted in recent years that these organisations should coordinate their positions on matters such as the Israel-Hamas conflict. India itself became a member of the SCO alongside Pakistan as part of the organisation's expansion and one rationale Chinese academics subsequently offered was to let the two countries use the forum to help resolve difficult bilateral problems. But China is hardly the honest broker — persistent India-China differences over Pakistan-sponsored terrorism relate to their broader geopolitical rivalry with Pakistan playing the role of China's proxy in South Asia. Expanding the role of the SCO and Brics to cover geopolitical issues as China has sought to do, redefines the role and identity of these institutions and, consequently, opens up avenues for internal divisions. Chinese moves have naturally led to opposition from India. New Delhi eventually acquiesced in the expansion of Brics but has taken a softer line than other members on Israel's actions in Gaza. Despite its gap in capabilities with China, India perceives itself to be a leader on the Asian continent and a rising power globally. China, for its part, sees itself as a putative successor to the US as the global hegemon but is aware of the challenge that India poses at least over the short term. Beijing's words and deeds have been tailored accordingly. In response to remarks by the Indian defence minister at a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the SCO meet that stressed 'the need to create good neighbourly conditions' among other things, Beijing declared that 'China stands ready to maintain communication with India on issues including delimitation negotiation and border management, jointly keep the border areas peaceful and tranquil, and promote cross-border exchange and cooperation'. However, the previous 60 days had also seen Sino-Pak military collusion during Operation Sindoor, a trilateral between Chinese, Pakistani and Afghan foreign ministers in Beijing soon after the declaration of a ceasefire, as well as the inaugural Bangladesh-China-Pakistan meeting of senior foreign ministry officials in Kunming in June. In the first two decades of the 21st century, multilateral forums such as the SCO and Brics provided useful platforms for interactions between the political leaderships of the two countries. However, structural conditions underlying India-China interactions have changed over the last decade. Even as there is the appearance of a rapprochement, India-China contestations have not only continued but extended to multilateral organisations. The Brics Summit in Rio has for its theme 'Strengthening Global South Cooperation for More Inclusive and Sustainable Governance'. However, India-China competition will now likely prevent institutions such as the SCO or Brics from emerging as platforms for Global South cooperation and advocacy. Given Chinese ambitions and strategies within regional and global organisations, there will be fewer multilateral forums where India and China can come together to move their relationship along other tracks or to discuss differences. Meanwhile, a West in relative decline and often unwilling to meet its commitments to the global good, and India's still limited capabilities in an age of rapid economic, technological and military transformation mean that claims of strategic autonomy ring increasingly hollow. Instead, New Delhi faces increasingly stark choices – alignment with China on the latter's terms, alignment with a West pulling in different directions, or a difficult, lonely free-floater position in international politics. The twin questions of what India must do to regain agency in its international relations and how it must go about doing it, have not yet been credibly addressed by its political leadership. Devendra Kumar is associate fellow and Jabin T Jacob is director at the Centre of Excellence for Himalayan Studies, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Delhi-NCR. The views expressed are personal.
