The Centre has sent a fresh notice to Twitter to block 1,178 accounts after it had sent a list of 257 accounts and tweets to be blocked.
The Centre has asked microblogging platform Twitter to remove or block 1,178 accounts that are suspected to have Pakistan or Khalistan links. Earlier, on January31, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had sent a list of 257 handles and tweets to be blocked for similar reasons while the latest notice was served on February 4 that the social media giant is yet to comply with.
Earlier, Twitter had blocked those accounts but a few hours later, it had unilaterally unblocked them. Twitter had responded to the Centre's request by saying, "Twitter is guided by principles of transparency and empowering the public conversation. If we receive a valid legal request about potentially illegal content on Twitter, we review it under the Twitter Rules and local law. If the content violates Twitter's Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in the location only. In all cases, we notify the account holder directly, so they're aware we've received a legal order pertaining to the account. Our goal is to respect local law while protecting our foundational principles of free expression," a Twitter spokesperson said, reported India Today.
As Twitter had unblocked the accounts, the government sent a new notice to the company. Many of these accounts were automated bots that were used to share and amplify misinformation and provocative content on farmers' protest, reported The Times of India citing sources. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had 'liked' several tweets related to farmers' protests that were tweeted by international personalities which hints at Twitter taking a stand contrary to the government's order.
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