Social media platform Twitter is the eye of a political storm in India after the federal government came down hard on it for unblocking accounts supporting the long-running protests by farmers.
Govt warns Twitter of consequences for defying orders to block accounts alleging Farmer Genocide
The notice warns the social media platform of consequences “of non-compliance of directions issued under section 69-A of the IT Act”. February 03, 2021 / 04:34 PM IST
The Centre on February 3 sent a notice to Twitter for reinstating accounts and Tweets supporting the farmers’ protest despite a directive by the the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) to block them for posing a threat to public order.
The notice warns the social media platform of penal action for non-compliance of directions issued under section 69-A of the IT Act”.
Twitter largely reverses censorship of Indian accounts, offers no explanation, disclosure
February 2, 2021
After a wide sweep of censorship restricted several Twitter accounts on Monday, which included The Caravan magazine, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati and the Kisan Ekta Morcha, the company has now reversed track. TIME magazine reported that these accounts were targeted because of tweets on farmer protests, and Twitter restored them after telling the Indian government that the tweets were newsworthy. While the company hasn’t provided TIME an on-record statement, the magazine said it was told that Twitter maintained that the legal demand was valid. The accounts have been unblocked in India. However, it is unclear what court order or legal demand caused the censorship. MediaNama has reached out to Twitter for comment, and we will update this story if we hear back from them.