Social media platform X on Tuesday said that it took down four posts by political parties and leaders – including one by a senior Bharatiya Janata Party office-bearer – for the rest of the Lok Sabha election period in compliance with orders from the Election Commission.

The social media platform, however, said that it disagreed with the action and that freedom of expression should extend to the posts.

X, formerly known as Twitter, was asked to take down posts by the Aam Aadmi Party, the YSR Congress party, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and state Bharatiya Janata Party president Samrat Choudhary.

The microblogging platform published the takedown orders and said it had notified the users about its actions.

The social media platform also called on the Election Commission “to publish all of its takedown orders going forward”.

The post by the Aam Aadmi Party featured a headline from the news website The Quint that read: “ED Arrested Aurobindo Pharma’s Director. 5 Days Later, It Bought Electoral Bonds”. The party had added a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the post, editing the image to redden his eyes, The Hindu reported.

Naidu had posted what appeared to be a document from the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Telugu Desam Party chief had said that the agency “seized a staggering 25,000 kilos of drugs at Vizag Port, today,” and alleged that the refusal of the Andhra Pradesh Police and port authorities to cooperate indicated the complicity and possible involvement of the ruling party.

Choudhary, in his post, had called Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav a “seasoned player” in selling election tickets, according to The Hindu. He remarked that Yadav “did not even spare his daughter” and made an apparent reference to the RJD chief’s daughter Rohini Acharya donating her kidney to him for a transplant in February 2023.

The post by the YSR Congress Party was not available on Tuesday evening, indicating that the party may have deleted it.

In a takedown request from April 2 posted by X on Tuesday, the Election Commission had directed it to remove the posts by the YSR Congress and Naidu for violating a provision of the Model Code of Conduct against criticism of the private life of political leaders and criticism based on unverified allegations.

On the same day, the social media platform was asked to remove the post by the Aam Aadmi Party. A day later, the poll body had requested Choudhary’s post to be withheld. The Election Commission alleged that both posts violated the Model Code of Conduct provision and an advisory issued by the poll body on March 1 asking parties to maintain decorum during campaigning.