X locked the account of Times of India photographer Anindya Chattopadhyay after he posted photographs and videos showing dense post-Diwali smog and poor visibility around Delhi’s NH9 and Lodhi Garden, according to a report published by The Times of India on November 10. The platform cited a “violation of its rules”, while the Delhi government denied any involvement in the account action.
Chattopadhyay said he was documenting the conditions he encountered during an early-morning journey through the city. He left home at 6.30am and travelled towards Akshardham. Near NH9, visibility fell sharply enough for him to park his scooter on the side of the highway, according to his account quoted in the report.
He filmed the haze from a foot overbridge and waited for 15 to 20 minutes before visibility improved slightly and he resumed his journey towards Lodhi Garden. He reported that the conditions remained poor there, with the area’s historic tombs barely visible through the dense smog.
The incident places a platform-enforcement action alongside a wider urban safety concern. Poor visibility on a major highway can affect how people travel, while conditions around public parks and heritage sites provide a visible indication of how heavily the haze has settled across the city. The report does not provide an air-quality reading or identify the specific X rule that the platform said had been violated.
Chattopadhyay said he believed it was his duty to show “the truth of the post-Diwali situation through my camera”. His account of the morning describes a city in which ordinary movement was affected by the atmospheric conditions: a scooter journey was interrupted on NH9, filming was conducted from a foot overbridge, and visibility around Lodhi Garden remained severely reduced.
The sequence also highlights the dependence of urban residents on photographs and videos to understand conditions across the city in real time. In this case, the account lock followed the uploading of visual material from two separate locations. The available report does not establish whether the action was triggered by the photographs, the videos, the accompanying text or another platform-related issue.
The Delhi government’s denial is the only official response included in the supplied report. X’s stated reason for the lock was a violation of its rules, but no further explanation from the platform has been reported. The account status and the basis for the enforcement action remain the immediate developments to be monitored.
