Twitter Restricts Accounts in India - Legal Demand

Updated at 11.30 PM IST (6.00 PM GMT): Twitter has reinstated the affected accounts in India on Monday evening (local time), over twelve hours after initially restricting access to them within the country. The company has not released an official statement; however, a tweet from Pratik Sinha, co-founder of the fact-checking organization Alt News, provides an accurate overview of the day’s developments.

The following is our initial report.

Twitter limited access to numerous accounts in India on Monday, including those belonging to prominent figures, in response to a “legal request.” This action has caused confusion and frustration among users who are requesting clarification regarding the situation.

The accounts restricted in India encompass those of Caravan (a news organization specializing in investigative journalism), political analyst Sanjukta Basu, activist Hansraj Meena, actor Sushant Singh, and Shashi Shekhar Vempati, the director-general of the state-run broadcaster Prasar Bharti. Access to accounts belonging to at least two politicians from the Aam Aadmi Party — Preeti Sharma Menon and Jarnail Singh — which governs the National Capital Territory of Delhi, has also been withheld.

Restrictions have also been applied to at least two widely-followed accounts associated with the ongoing farmer protests – Kisan Ekta Morcha and Tractor2Twitr – within India.

The identity of the parties who initiated the legal proceedings that led to Twitter’s restriction of these accounts in India remains currently unconfirmed. These accounts are still accessible to users located outside of India. In the instance of political commentator Basu, Twitter informed him that Indian authorities had issued the legal demand concerning several accounts, including his own, and that discussions were underway with the authorities.

Earlier today, AFP journalist Bhuvan Bagga reported, citing a government source, that India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology instructed Twitter to block approximately 250 tweets and accounts. These were alleged to have used a specific hashtag to disseminate false, threatening, and inflammatory content over the weekend. He further stated: “Incitement to genocide poses a serious threat to public order, and therefore the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) ordered the blocking of these Twitter accounts and Tweets under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.” A source with knowledge of the situation confirmed this information to TechCrunch.

A Twitter spokesperson stated, “Various nations have laws that can be applicable to Tweets and/or Twitter account content. As we continue to work towards making our services available to individuals globally, we may need to restrict access to specific content in a particular country from time to time if we receive a valid request from an authorized body. Transparency is essential for safeguarding freedom of expression, and we maintain a notice policy for withheld content.”

Vinod Jose, the executive editor of Caravan, noted that Twitter did not notify the publication before restricting its Twitter account.

“Section 69A and the IT Blocking Rules prevent intermediaries like Twitter from revealing any details regarding the blocking of an account or tweet. The confidentiality requirement outlined in Rule 16 of the IT Blocking Rules creates a challenging situation where citizens have the right to contest the blocking of online content, but they are unable to do so due to a lack of access to the relevant legal orders,” explained New Delhi-based advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation, highlighting the limitations of this law for citizens in the country.

This action occurs while several Indian journalists are facing sedition charges related to their reporting and social media posts concerning last week’s farmer protests. Journalists facing these charges include Rajdeep Sardesai, a well-known news anchor, and Vinod Jose, the executive editor of Caravan.

Twitter, which has a user base of around 75 million in India, has consistently been subject to criticism regarding its operational practices within the country.

In contrast to the United States, Twitter has historically struggled to implement even basic content moderation standards in India. Many trending topics in India appear to be either manipulated, sponsored, offensive, abusive, irrelevant, outdated, or dangerous – and often, a combination of these characteristics.