After Twitter failed to comply with the Ministry of Information and Technology’s request for action on accounts spreading inflammatory propaganda on the social media platform, the government seems to have adopted a stern stance.
Twitter on Wednesday said in a statement that it had withheld some of the accounts identified in the blocking orders under our Country Withheld Content policy within India but did not take any action on accounts of alleged media outlets, journalists, activists and politicians. Earlier, Twitter had temporarily blocked these accounts over comments made by them on the platform using the hashtag #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide. However, in just a few hours the accounts were reactivated citing “free speech” and because it found the content “newsworthy”.
After Twitter reactivated these accounts, MeitY sent a notice to the micro-blogging site under section 69A of the IT act following which Twitter released a statement stating the reason for not blocking certain accounts.
In response to this, MeitY, hinting that it would be not be taking things for granted posted its response to Twitter on Koo, the Indian version of Twitter.
The government’s response on Koo is seen as a subtle and loaded message to Twitter to pull up its sock and obey the law of land.
In the earlier notice issued by MeitY to Twitter, it said “Twitter is an intermediary and they are obliged to obey the directions of the government. Refusal to do so will invite penal action”
It added that the “motivated campaigns” on the platform and the controversial hashtag around Prime Minister Narendra Modi were being run to “abuse, inflame and create tension in society on unsubstantiated grounds”.
The government gave a very strong warning to Twitter that failure to comply with its order would invite action against the company under Section 69A [3] of the IT Act, under which senior officials of the micro-blogging site could face a jail term of up to seven years, and a financial penalty.
Only after this Twitter began to understand the gravity of the situation and assured the government that it is looking into all the concerns raised by the government and it will take stock of the content on the handles flagged by it.
As of now, Twitter has deactivated 126 of the 257 handles that had originally tweeted using the hashtag, sources were quoted in the report as saying. Also, it has deactivated 583 of the 1,178 handles that the government suspected to have links with Khalistani and Pakistani elements to spread misinformation and provocative content.
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