diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/api/ReactAndroid.api b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/api/ReactAndroid.api
index a932949100b68c..0c81f72bce0499 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/api/ReactAndroid.api
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/api/ReactAndroid.api
@@ -6553,7 +6553,6 @@ public class com/facebook/react/views/textinput/ReactEditText : androidx/appcomp
 	public fun onTextContextMenuItem (I)Z
 	public fun onTouchEvent (Landroid/view/MotionEvent;)Z
 	public fun removeTextChangedListener (Landroid/text/TextWatcher;)V
-	public fun requestFocus (ILandroid/graphics/Rect;)Z
 	public final fun requestFocusFromJS ()V
 	public final fun setAllowFontScaling (Z)V
 	public final fun setAutoFocus (Z)V
diff --git a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/views/textinput/ReactEditText.kt b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/views/textinput/ReactEditText.kt
index 358306a829f089..639b3d3a8761ef 100644
--- a/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/views/textinput/ReactEditText.kt
+++ b/packages/react-native/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/react/views/textinput/ReactEditText.kt
@@ -364,23 +364,9 @@ public open class ReactEditText public constructor(context: Context) : AppCompat
     hideSoftKeyboard()
   }
 
-  override fun requestFocus(direction: Int, previouslyFocusedRect: Rect?): Boolean {
-    // On some older versions of Android there is a bug where `clearFocus` will try to focus the
-    // first focusable View in the hierarchy after clearing focus. This is intended behavior, but
-    // only if you are not in touch mode per
-    // https://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View#clearFocus(), yet this happens in
-    // both. Therefore, we are swallowing Android-based focus calls if we are in touch mode.
-    // If we are not in touch mode (using a hardware keyboard) then we will allow this to happen.
-    // Note this only happens for Android-origin focus calls, as opposed to JS-origin (like tapping)
-    // since those go through `requestFocusProgrammatically`
-    if (isInTouchMode) {
-      return isFocused
-    }
-    return super.requestFocus(direction, previouslyFocusedRect)
-  }
-
   // For cases like autoFocus, or ref.focus() where we request focus programmatically and not
-  // through interacting with the EditText directly (like clicking on it). We cannot use stock
+  // through
+  // interacting with the EditText directly (like clicking on it). We cannot use stock
   // requestFocus() because it will not pop up the soft keyboard, only clicking the input will do
   // that. This method will eventually replace requestFocusInternal()
   private fun requestFocusProgrammatically(): Boolean {