YSR Congress Party president and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Wednesday accused the state police of allegedly using the identity of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) while seeking the removal of social media posts from X.
In a post on X, Jagan alleged that the Naidu government was following the “Red Book” rule to harass social media activists who were questioning the government’s alleged misrule.
He claimed that an Andhra Pradesh police officer, apparently from Guntur, had identified the FBI as the sender organisation in a request submitted to X seeking the removal of certain posts.
He further alleged that X had confirmed that the request actually originated from an official Andhra Pradesh Police email address and not from the FBI.
The YSRCP chief questioned who had authorised the request and why the FBI’s identity was allegedly used. He sought clarification on whether the move was intended to mislead X and suppress criticism of the state government.
According to Jagan, the posts and criticism concerned several issues, including the alleged non-fulfilment of the government’s Super Six and Super Seven promises, alleged irregularities in the DSC recruitment process, Amaravati-related issues, the state’s debt position, governance failures and alleged harassment of political opponents.
Jagan accused the Naidu government of using the police machinery to silence its critics, alleging that the police force was being used for political censorship rather than law enforcement.
He said that invoking the name of a foreign investigative agency in a content-removal request had damaged the reputation of Andhra Pradesh and its police force.
The allegations come amid an ongoing political dispute between the ruling TDP-led government and the YSRCP over the use of social media and government mechanisms to restrict or remove content critical of the administration.
Jagan also called on the government to focus on issues such as drought relief for farmers, employment generation and development instead of attempting to restrict criticism on social media.
“If this government is confident in its record,” Jagan said in his post, “it should respond to criticism through performance and transparency rather than censorship and harassment.”
