Things took a drastic turn for Government Of India after January 26th farmer tractor rally, while it openly condemned well-noted people who spoke against the Farmer Bills. Social media played a crucial role in this phase, platforms like Twitter and Facebook in specific.
In a recent development, microblogging platform Twitter on Wednesday said it has under pressure from the India government from the past 10 days suspended almost 500 accounts. In a blog answering a lot of questions around the whole issue, Twitter today claimed that it has blocked the accounts that violated the Twitter Rules, particularly inciting violence, abuse, wishes of harm, and threats that could trigger the risk of online harm.
Transparency is the foundation for promoting healthy public conversation.
Following the reports of violence in recent weeks, we're sharing a granular update on our proactive efforts to enforce our rules and defend our principles in India: https://t.co/ry557Nj94U
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 10, 2021
However, in a major twist, Twitter stated that it has not taken any action on news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians as it believes that doing so “would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law”.
In the line of the announcement made that they will continue to maintain a dialogue with the Indian government and respectfully engage with MeitY, Twitter officials have sought to meet IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad citing concerns regarding the safety of its employees.
257 accounts which tweeted with hashtag #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide and 1,178 handles that the government suspected to have links with Khalistani and Pakistani are learnt to be blocked.
