Twitter withholds accounts of Caravan magazine, Kisan Ekta Morcha, many others; receives flak
Many journalists believe that this is part of a well-planned strategy to curb freedom of press.
By News Desk| Edited by Hadif Nisar | Updated: 1st February 2021 6:11 pm IST According to the microblogging site, when such a message is displayed, it means “Twitter was compelled to withhold the entire account specified (e.g., @username) in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order.”
Twitter has withheld multiple accounts, including the official twitter account of The Caravan magazine in India. Twitter says that these accounts have been withheld “in response to a legal demand.”
FIRs against Journalists and Media outlets
Notably, the Delhi Police registered an FIR against The Caravan magazine for allegedly spreading false information that a farmer died in police firing at the ITO intersection on January 26 after the protesting farmers proposed tractor rally turned violent on Republic Day in the national capital.
Twitter
Moreover, a host of FIRs, including Rajdeep Sardesai of India Today, and Siddharth Vardarajan of The Wire have been withheld for allegedly misreporting the death of a farmer on Republic Day. Delhi Police have been condemned for cracking down on press freedom, especially after Mandeep Punia, was arrested on Saturday, 30 January from the Singhu border.
Government asks Twitter to ‘withhold’ accounts for hateful tweets on farmers protest
The crackdown, sources said, was done based on orders issued by the Centre asking Twitter to withhold as many as 250 URLs who were running a particular hashtag about farmers protests
Social media companies (Image Source: Reuters)
Twitter on February 1 “withheld” multiple accounts on its social media platform, including many linked with the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi borders against the new contentious central farm laws.
The crackdown, sources said, was done based on orders issued by the Centre asking Twitter to withhold as many as 250 URLs who were running a particular hashtag about farmers protests.
Twitter blocked around 250 accounts following requests from the Indian government.
New Delhi:
The Twitter account of public broadcaster Prasar Bharati s chief executive was among those blocked by the social networking company on Monday amid a broad sweep of users found using a hashtag deemed inappropriate by the government. The account was restored later in the evening.
Shashi Shekhar Vempati s account was withheld inadvertently by Twitter, government sources said, as authorities asked the US company to take down accounts that had used the hashtag #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide during the ongoing farmers protests.
Prasar Bharati asked Twitter to explain the reason for withholding Mr Vempati s account but soon deleted the tweet.
It has also withheld accounts of The Caravan and a few other people and organisations.
01 Feb, 2021 - 08:09 PM IST | By indiantelevision.com Team
NEW DELHI: Social media platform Twitter on Monday temporarily suspended the account of Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati, news magazine The Caravan, the Kisan Ekta Morcha collective, and several others “in response to a legal demand.”
However, Vempati’s account was restored hours later. “The twitter handle of CEO Prasar Bharti has now been restored. Thankful to Twitter for clearing up the confusion,” tweeted the public broadcaster through its official handle.
On 30 January, Vempati had voiced his concerns over some provocative hashtags trending on Twitter, which he believed to be fomenting rumor mongering and disinformation, and urged the platform to take immediate action against handles that were tweeting with the hashtags.