Twitter Said to Have Complied With Ministry of Electronics and IT’s Final Notice

Social media platform Twitter has complied with the final notice issued by the Ministry of Electronics and IT on June 27, an official source said on Monday.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT had set a deadline of July 4, failing which Twitter could have lost the intermediary status, which means it will be liable for all the comments posted on its platform.

“Twitter has complied with the notice,” an official source told PTI on the condition of anonymity.

According to another official source, the social media firm was asked to take action on some tweets and Twitter accounts but the microblogging had not reported compliance on the same earlier.

Twitter declined to comment on the matter.

The government in May had asked Twitter to act on content related to Khalistan and accounts eulogising terrorists in Kashmir. Later in June, the government asked Twitter to act on around 60 accounts.

According to sources, Twitter has taken action on the request and reported compliance.

On June 26, the microblogging site submitted a separate list of over 80 Twitter accounts and tweets that it has blocked based on a request from the government in 2021.

The request from the government was to block multiple accounts and some tweets from the international advocacy group Freedom House, journalists, politicians and supporters of the farmers’ protest.

As reported previously, Twitter was allegedly ordered by the Indian government in 2021 to block 2020 tweets by Freedom House in India that reported the declining Internet freedom in the country. The social media company is said to have only enforced the order on in June. It also blocked some tweets and/ or handles of various other users who are said to be critical of the India government. Various users have shared screenshots of emails they received from the microblogging platform explaining that the content they shared has been blocked in India. Furthermore, some auxiliary accounts of users have shared screenshots which read that their accounts have been “withheld in India in response to a legal demand.” However, in some cases Twitter has not taken any action after a removal request from the Government of India.