The Indian government has proposed to suppress online content in India, establish control over messaging and trace messages to their origin, and this has allowed people to compare the country with autocratic countries like China and Russia.

The proposal comes ahead of the upcoming national elections in the spring, and the new rules could be imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government at any moment after the public comment period ends, CNN reported. Civic groups and other critics say the changes would go against freedom of speech and privacy, while India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology says the new rules are necessary to lead a fight against false and illegal information on the Internet. Tech companies state that meeting the proposed requirement would mean to destroy the privacy of users. The upcoming national elections is making the proposal more pressing, and India’s Election Commission is discussing the issue of banning all social media content and ads that can have an impact on voters in the course of the 48 hours before voting.