Twitter on Monday "withheld" multiple accounts, including those linked with the ongoing farmers' protest at Delhi's borders against the contentious new farm laws. Among the accounts withheld were Kisan Ekta Morcha and BKU Ekta Urgahan. Besides these, several other individual and organisational accounts, including one of a media outlet, The Caravan, were also withheld "in response to a legal demand."
The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had reportedly asked the microblogging website to block over 250 accounts or tweets using #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide. According to reports, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and law enforcement agencies had directed the IT Ministry to take relevant action in view of the social media agitation in solidarity with the farmers' protests.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) slammed the Centre and Twitter over "an Emergency like crackdown on free speech and dissent." Incidentally, AAP’s national executive member and Mumbai Prabhari Preeti Sharma Menon and AAP Maharashtra Secretary Dhananjay Shinde’s Twitter accounts were also withheld.
"In what seems as a complete crackdown on free speech and dissent, Twitter India withheld accounts of prominent members of the Opposition. AAP’s national executive member and Mumbai Prabhari, Preeti Sharma Menon and AAP Maharashtra’s Secretary Dhananjay Shinde’s twitter accounts were withheld and were made inaccessible across India in a swift move today with immediate effect (sic)," the party press release said.
"The legal notice from Twitter received by Preeti Sharma Menon states that the action has been taken at the behest of the government in pursuance to a legal request of an authorized entity which is defined as a law-enforcement or a government agency. It is ironic that the same legal notice speaks of informing its users of action taken against their accounts, in the interest of 'transparency', it refuses to divulge which government agency ordered the crackdown to begin with."
The release further said, "Willful suppression of Twitter accounts at the behest of the government of the day, to muzzle free speech and dissent is nothing short of Emergency. Moreover free speech only seems to matter to Twitter when it concerns the West and its treatment meted out to its users in India is not only sorry but downright discriminatory. Dissent is the cornerstone of democracy and it is free speech which as a hallmark distinguishes a popularly elected monarchy from a truly democratic government. We need to remind ourselves and the Govt, that this country is a Republic with our free speech guaranteed by the Constitution and not on BJP's whims."
Meanwhile, the microblogging site has gradually started restoring access to the accounts.
