In response to the threat from New Delhi to take legal action against Twitter executives, Twitter has removed nearly 500 accounts. The platform also reduced the visibility of many hashtags across India and to Indian audiences to comply with orders from the Indian government. The Twitter accounts that the platform had suspended are mostly the ones that have been linked to farmers’ protests against agricultural reforms. However, a few hours after suspending these accounts, Twitter reversed its decision and started restoring the accounts slowly, citing users’ freedom of speech.
The accounts that Twitter suspended included accounts of various famous individuals to satisfy the legal demand of the Indian government. However, once the Twitter users started questioning this move by the platform, the officials restored most of the accounts. However, to ensure that they were following the government’s orders, Twitter resuspended some of the accounts temporarily, while it was permanent for some other accounts. They also claimed to have blocked certain terms from appearing on the trending page of the Indian audience.
The platform made it clear that the Twitter handles they had blocked in response to government threats were exclusively blocked in India. All of the handles, tweets and other content they share in their accounts will remain visible outside of the country, as the government’s demands are inconsistent with the local laws of other countries.
Twitter India Caravansinghtechcrunch
Among the accounts that Twitter has suspended after the threat from New Delhi includes an account of an investigative news agency called Caravan. Twitter claimed none of the accounts that were taken down belonged to any form of news media entities, journalists, activists or politicians, as it would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law. The authorities at Twitter have also claimed that they have informed MeitY [Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology] about their enforcement actions. Nevertheless, the news agency, Caravan, focusing on investigative journalism, has claimed that their account had been taken down, proving the claims made by Twitter to be false.
Apart from Twitter India Caravansinghtechcrunch, some other high-profile accounts that Twitter has suspended are political analyst Sanjukta Basu, activist Hansraj Meena and actor Sushant Singh. They have also taken down the accounts of the CEO of state-owned broadcasting company Prasar Bharti – Shashi Shekhar Vempati and Preeti Sharma Menon &Jarnail Singh, who are members of the Aam Aadmi Party. Another popular accounts that have been blocked by Twitter for being linked to the farmers’ protest are Kisan Ekta Morcha as well as Tractor2Twitr.
Even though there was never an official report that said who was involved in the legal process that led Twitter India Caravansinghtechcrunch to shut down accounts from India, people and the account owners have their opinions about who and what might have prompted the account suspensions.
Statements from Twitter
As soon as Twitter started suspending these accounts, which had been playing a huge part in spreading the word of the farmers’ protest and bringing international eyes to the protest, people all around the world started questioning its decision. It prompted Twitter to release a statement in which they claimed that “many countries have their own set of laws concerning Tweets and/or Twitter account content.