Twitter doubts legality of blocking orders, 'unusual' stance surprises government

The war of words between Twitter and the Indian government seems to have escalated with the Electronics and Information Technology Ministry terming as "unusual" the post by the micro-blogging site defending its actions of blocking and unblocking of accounts.

Asianet Newsable English

New Delhi, First Published Feb 10, 2021, 2:36 PM IST | Last Updated Feb 10, 2021, 2:36 PM IST

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In a blog post, the site noted that in the last 10 days it has been served a number of blocking orders by the Indian government, including two emergency blocking orders (which were complied with but restored later.)
 

The platform claimed the actions that it had been told to take (by the government) are not consistent with Indian law, and in keeping with its principles of defending speech and freedom of expressing.
 

Twitter said it had withheld a segment of the accounts identified in the orders that came from the government under the Country Withheld Content Policy clause wherein these accounts will not be blocked in India, but will remain available abroad.

The micro-blogging site clarified that it had not taken action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians as doing so would "violate their fundamental right to free expression" under Indian law. 
 

Even as Twitter stated that while it will continue to hold talks with the Indian government on the issue, it is also parallelly exploring legal options not just for the platform but also for the accounts that have been impacted.
 

Furthermore, making it clear that the platform will continue to strive for the right of free expression, Twitter said that health of conversations on the site.

The government hit back at Twitter after the blog post
 

Responding to Twitter, Electronics and Information Technology Ministry said that Secretary IT was to hold talks with the platform following the latter's request for a meeting. 
 

Calling the blog post prior to the talks as "unusual", the ministry said it will share its response soon.