Amid pandemic, Modi govt tells Twitter, Facebook to block posts identified by it as misleading
Twitter acknowledged that it had received a legal request from the government following which the micro-blogging site has notified the impacted account holders of its action. The platform, however, did not divulge details of the affected accounts. Facebook is yet to comment on this news.
FollowSocial media giants Twitter and Facebook, who are already walking the tightrope with regard to their privacy policies, have been busy removing content and posts identified by the Indian government as spreading misinformation about the pandemic.
Covid cases in India have gone through the roof in the last few days with over three lakh cases being registered daily.
Twitter acknowledged that it had received a legal request from the government following which the micro-blogging site has notified the impacted account holders of its action. The platform, however, did not divulge details of the affected accounts. Facebook is yet to comment on this news.
A Twitter spokesman told media outlets that if any of the content violates its rules, it will be removed. If the content is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, the platform might withhold access to the content in India only.
Many of these posts, which allegedly carried misinformation about Covid and were aimed at triggering public panic, were flagged off by the government on Friday to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other websites on Friday.
According to reports, Twitter has received directives to act upon 52 such posts.
Among those whose posts were blocked included Revanth Reddy, Congress Member of Parliament from Malkajgiri, who tweeted using the hashtag ModiMadeDisaster
to say: "India recording over 2 lakh cases every day, shortage of vaccines, shortage of medicines, increasing number of deaths... healthcare system is collapsing."
Â
The tweet from Revanth Reddy is currently withheld in India in response to a legal demand, Twitter announces on his timeline.
