The X handle of ‘Cockroach Janta Party’, a satirical account opened after Chief Justice of India Surya Kant’s remarks about those who “attack the system”, was withheld Thursday following a direction from the Centre in the wake of inputs from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) that raised “national security concerns,” a senior government official told The Indian Express.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) asked X to withhold the account under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the official said, adding that the input to do so came from the IB.
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“MeitY received an input from the IB to block the X account of Cockroach Janta Party, citing that it posed a threat to the sovereignty of India. The IB believed that the account was posting inflammatory content through its account, which could have jeopardised the country’s national security.” the official said on condition of anonymity since such blocking orders are issued under a confidential framework. “In particular, the concern stemmed from the fact that the account’s content was gaining traction among young people.”
Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act empowers the Central government to restrict public access to information in the interest of sovereignty, security, public order or preventing incitement to offences.
The process is governed by the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. Blocking orders are confidential.
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Although the account has been withheld in India, it is accessible from other locations – it had more than 200,000 followers on X as of Thursday evening. A second government official said that the blocking order was sent to the social media company when the account had roughly around 90,000 followers.
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The Instagram handle associated with the user has not been blocked in India yet, and had over 16 million followers Thursday.
“However, it is likely that the Instagram account would also be blocked, and that process is currently underway,” the senior official said.
Queries sent to the ministries of Home Affairs and Information Technology, and X did not elicit a response.
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“As expected, Cockroach Janta Party’s account has been withheld in India,” the platform’s founder, Abhijeet Dipke, posted from his account Thursday afternoon. Less than two hours later, he announced a new handle for the platform, Cockroach Is Back, and urged people to join it.
According to X guidelines, any account or post is withheld if the social networking site receives a “valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity”.
“Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s),” it states.
Dipke, 30, is from Maharashtra, and says he is currently in Boston.
The satirical account was launched in response to a remark by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant that sparked a row.
On May 15, the CJI pulled up a lawyer who had filed a petition seeking directions to the Delhi High Court over the designation of a Senior Advocate, a status he himself was aspiring to. “There are already parasites of society who attack the system, and you want to join hands with them? There are youngsters like cockroaches, who don’t get any employment or have any place in (the) profession. Some of them become media, some of them become social media, RTI activists and other activists, and they start attacking everyone,” he said.
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The remarks triggered an uproar, following which the CJI said it was “totally baseless” to suggest that he had criticised the youth. “What I had specifically criticised were those who have entered professions like the Bar (legal profession) with the aid of fake and bogus degrees. Similar persons have sneaked into the media, social media, and other noble professions as well, and hence, they are like parasites. It is totally baseless to suggest that I criticised the youth of our nation. Not only am I proud of our present and future human resource, but every youth of India inspires me,” he said.
Shortly after the CJI’s remark, Dipke had criticised it in a post on X. The next day, he announced a platform for all “cockroaches” and shared a link to an online “membership form/” This started a social media trend.
While one section of social media users, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, gave the platform a shoutout, another dismissed it as a viral trend that would pass.
Earlier, Dipke had told The Indian Express, “I just created a Cockroach Janata Party poster using AI, and I made the eligibility criteria. I noticed that within a few hours, we received some 5,000 responses from people standing up as members of the Cockroach Janta Party. That made me think this was the time to start a new handle (on X) and we got 10,000 followers in 12 hours,” he said.
“This is something unprecedented that is happening. The plan is to change the political discourse and to make politicians more accountable,” he said.
Meanwhile, a Zila Parishad member in Haryana’s Rohtak has announced a protest Friday under the banner of the Cockroach Janta Party. Jaidav Dagar, 31, has said he identifies with those called “cockroaches” and will raise his voice “against injustice and public issues that demand attention”.