Twitter suspends over 500 accounts

Tribune News Service & PTI

New Delhi, February 10

Twitter on Wednesday said it had suspended over 500 accounts and blocked access to several others within India as it partly acceded to a government order to curb the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content around farmers’ protests.

Twitter, in a blog post, said it had not blocked accounts consisting of “news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians as doing so would violate their fundamental right to free expression” guaranteed under the country’s law.

The government, however, termed as “unusual” Twitter's move to publish the blog before slated talks with the IT Secretary on the issue.

“Upon the request of Twitter seeking a meeting with the government, the IT Secretary was to engage with Twitter senior management. In this light, a blog post published prior to it is unusual,” the IT Ministry said in its response on Koo, a homegrown social networking platform.

Twitter was asked by the government to block 1,178 accounts. The company said the orders were inconsistent with Indian law and for some accounts, it would restrict access within India instead of an outright ban.

Read also:

• Yogendra Yadav ‘incited’ farmers: Bittu in House

• Amnesty decries crackdown on agitators
• Dead farmer’s kin move HC
• UK MP Dhesi worried over Nodeep arrest

Ready for dialogue

"Our objective is not change in power (at the Centre). We want the govt to repeal the farm laws. Our committee is ready for talks." —Rakesh Tikait, BKU leader