Centre warns Twitter to comply or face penal action

More than 250 accounts were blocked on Monday for tweeting, retweeting 'farmer genocide.'

The government on Wednesday directed Twitter to comply with its order to remove accounts or content related to 'farmer genocide' hashtag and warned it of penal action for non-compliance of its order. Twitter had 'unilaterally unblocked' accounts and tweets that were related to the hashtag referring to the farmers' protest, despite specific order for blocking.

More than 250 accounts were blocked on Monday for tweeting, retweeting 'farmer genocide' hashtag and spreading "fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets" in connection with the ongoing farmers' protest. The government has said that use of the hashtag is part of "motivated campaign to abuse, inflame and create tension in society on unsubstantiated grounds. Incitement to genocide is not freedom of speech; It is threat to law and order."

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Sunday had sought "emergency blocking of 257 URLs and 1 Hashtag under section 69 A of the Information Technology Act," as per an official statement, which said the social media giant "unfortunately chose not to comply with the same till almost the time fixed for the meeting of a committee" the next day at 3 PM.

The government notice sent to the social media giant, quoted more than half a dozen Supreme Court judgments that included constitutional benches as to what is public order and what the rights of authorities are. IT ministry sources asserted that Twitter cannot assume the role of court and justify non-compliance. The statement said since Twitter is an intermediary, it is "obliged to obey the directions as per satisfaction of authorities as to which inflammatory content will arouse passion and impact public order.''

The statement also said that Twitter cannot act as an "appellate authority over the satisfaction of the authorities about its potential impact on derailing public order." Earlier the Ministry of External Affairs had released an unprecedented statement after Rihanna's tweet went viral on social media regarding the farmers' protest and the issue became global as the international community backed the cause.