There's something unsettling about watching the world's largest democracy learn the tricks of the world's most authoritarian regimes, and doing it with a smile. That's what makes the clash between Elon Musk's X and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government more than just a corporate dispute. It's a test case for whether democratic countries can slowly choke free speech without tearing up their constitutions.

India's new weapon is the "Sahyog" portal. On paper, it's a system to remove harmful or illegal online content. In reality, it's a fast-track censorship machine, letting almost any government body, from city police to federal ministries, order takedowns. Between March 2024 and June 2025, there were over 1,400 such orders. And the targets? Not terrorist propaganda or foreign disinforma

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