Twitter disabled access to multiple accounts from India, including accounts belonging to famous people, to satisfy a “legal demand,” causing frustration and uncertainty among users asking for an explanation.
Caravan (an investigative journalism news agency), Sanjukta Basu, activist Hansraj Meena, and Shashi Shekhar Vempati, chief executive officer of the state-owned broadcasting company Prasar Bharti, are among those whose accounts are being kept secret from India. Accounts for at most two members of the Aam Aadmi party who govern Delhi – Preeti Sharma Menon and Jarnail Singh. The National Capital Territory of Delhi is similarly kept secret.
Kisan Ekta Morcha and Tractor2Twitter, two prominent accounts of farmer demonstrations in India, have also been suspended.
It is unknown who was engaged in the legal process that resulted in Twitter India Caravansinghtechcrunch blocking accounts from India. This information is not publicly available. The accounts are available to users located in countries other than India. Twitter informed the political journalist Basu that Indian authorities had issued a legal notice against a few accounts with his name and that the company contacted the authorities regarding the matter.
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AFP journalist BhuvanBagga disclosed that the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology ordered Twitter to stop around 250 tweets and accounts that used hashtags to publish what they claimed were untrue, intimidating, and provocative tweets over the weekend. The source for this information was a government official. In addition to this, he asserts that “incitement to genocide is a significant threat to public order” and that, as a result, “the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) ordered for the shutdown of these Twitter accounts and Tweets under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.”
A Twitter spokeswoman stated, “many states have a law that can be applicable to tweets or the content of Twitter accounts.” We are making efforts to ensure that our services are accessible to all users; nevertheless, if we are presented with a legitimately scoped inquiry from an authorized party or other institution, we may be required to restrict access to particular content in a given country. It is crucial to defend people’s right to free speech by being transparent, which is why we have a policy of giving notice before withholding content.
Unfortunately, according to Section 70A prohibit from disclosing information about blocking or removing any Twitter account.” Furthermore, the confidentiality in Rule 16 of the IT Blocking Rules creates an odd situation in which citizens can challenge the blocking of content on the internet but are unable to do so as they do not have access to these legal rulings,” explained Internet Freedom Foundation, a New Delhi-based advocacy group, explaining the limitations of this law that people face in the country.
The move today comes as numerous Indian journalists are being charged with sedition for their reportage and social media posts about the farmers’ protest earlier this week. Rajdeep Sardesai, a prominent news anchor, and Vinod Jose, the executive director of Caravan, are the journalists under investigation.
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