The government has cited the unblocking of over 250 accounts and posts that talked about “farmer genocide” and issued a notice to Twitter saying the social media company was violating the Information Technology Act’s Section 69 that provides for seven-year imprisonment.
The Centre on February 3 sent a notice to Twitter for reinstating accounts and Tweets supporting the farmers’ protest despite a directive to block them by the Information Technology ministry.
The government has cited the unblocking of over 250 accounts and posts that talked about “farmer genocide” and issued a notice to Twitter saying the social media company was violating the Information Technology Act’s Section 69 that provides for seven-year imprisonment.
Content with the 'ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide' hashtag was posted on Twitter which was designed to inflame passions and hatred and is factually incorrect, according to the sources.
Government sources said that Twitter had unilaterally unblocked accounts/tweets despite the government order for blocking. Twitter is an intermediary and it is obliged to obey the direction of the government, refusal to do so will invite penal action.
Government notice quoted more than half a dozen Supreme Court judgments including of constitutional benches as to what is public order and what the rights of authorities are.
The crackdown, sources said, was done based on orders issued by the Centre asking Twitter to withhold as many as 257 URLs, including nearly 100 Twitter accounts, who were running a particular hashtag about farmers' protests.
The notice has also cited over half a dozen Supreme Court judgements including that of the constitutional bench as to what is public order and what are the rights of the authorities. “Twitter being an intermediary is obliged to obey the directions as per satisfaction of authorities as to which information content will arouse passion and impact public order,” the notice said.
Among the individuals whose accounts have been withheld include that of actor Sushant Singh, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati to name a few. Officials said that Shashi Shekhar Vempati’s account was blocked by a mistake and will be restored soon.
