Swara Bhaskar criticises social media platform X for permanently suspending her account

Actor Swara Bhasker criticizes permanent suspension of her social media account over alleged copyright infringements.

Actor Swara Bhaskar on Thursday said her X account has been permanently suspended due to alleged copyright infringements over two posts she shared on Republic Day. The 36-year-old shared a screenshot of an email she received from the social media platform's team on Instagram and criticised the decision as "ridiculous" and "untenable".

"Two images from two tweets have been marked as ‘copyright infringements’. Basis which my X account is locked / disabled, I can’t access it and permanent suspension has been approved by your teams," she wrote.

In the first post, Swara had shared a photo of the popular Hindi protest slogan: "Gandhi Hum Sharmindaa hain, Tere qaatil zinda hain" (Gandhi, we are ashamed; your killers are still alive).

"There is no copyright violation. It is akin to urban modern folk idiom," Bhaskar said.

The other post featured a picture of her child waving the Indian flag on Republic Day. The child’s face was concealed by a heart emoji.

"How can this possibly be a copyright infringement ???? Who has a copyright on my child’s likeness??? Both of these complaints are ridiculous and untenable by any rational, logical and objective understanding of any legal definition of copyright," Bhaskar said. "If these tweets have been mass reported they are aimed to harass the user I.e. myself and are aimed at suppressing my freedom of speech and expression," she added.

Bhaskar urged the platform to review and reverse its decision.