NEW DELHI: Social media platform Twitter on Monday temporarily suspended the account of Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati, news magazine The Caravan, the Kisan Ekta Morcha collective, and several others “in response to a legal demand.”
However, Vempati’s account was restored hours later. “The twitter handle of CEO Prasar Bharti has now been restored. Thankful to Twitter for clearing up the confusion,” tweeted the public broadcaster through its official handle.
On 30 January, Vempati had voiced his concerns over some provocative hashtags trending on Twitter, which he believed to be fomenting rumor mongering and disinformation, and urged the platform to take immediate action against handles that were tweeting with the hashtags.
https://twitter.com/shashidigital/status/1356232902271324161?s=20
“Good to see action on this issue,” he later tweeted.
But on Monday, anyone who visited Vempati’s Twitter page, and those of the publication and group mentioned above, was greeted with an “Account withheld” message. Once an account is withheld, it cannot be accessed by the person and none of the followers can view the tweets posted earlier. While no official statement has been released on the matter from Twitter India, the site only mentioned that “account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand."
“Many countries have laws that may apply to tweets and/or Twitter account content. In our continuing effort to make our services available to people everywhere, if we receive a properly scoped request, from an authorised entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time,” said Twitter in a statement to ANI.
The social media platform has also withheld accounts of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, activist Hansraj Meena, farmer organisation Kisan Ekta Morcha, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Jarnail Singh and CPI(M) leader Md Salim in response to a legal demand.
Several news reports, including one published in ANI, quoted sources stating that the ministry of electronics and IT (MEITY) had earlier requested Twitter to block around 250 tweets/Twitter accounts which were allegedly making fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets on 30 January. This comes amid the continued standoff between the government and farmer groups over the new farm laws.
