Social Media Watch Feb 2021-2022 | IT Min ordered to take down 1,474 accounts, 175 tweets: Twitter in petition

BETWEEN FEBRUARY 2021 and 2022, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is learnt to have issued 10 blocking orders to Twitter, directing the corporate to take down over 1,400 accounts and 175 tweets below Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Twitter has moved the Karnataka High Court, in search of to quash blocking orders for 39 of these hyperlinks flagged by the Ministry, in keeping with the petition filed by the social media big.

Twitter has informed the courtroom that “increasingly” the Ministry has been issuing orders to dam total accounts with out informing the corporate the particular tweets made by these accounts that decision for his or her blocking, as per the petition, which The Indian Express has reviewed. “Several of the URLs contain political and journalistic content. Blocking of such information is a gross violation of the freedom of speech guaranteed to citizen-users of the platform,” the corporate stated.

The firm has additionally claimed that the Ministry has, in lots of instances, not offered “proper reasons” for issuing the blocking orders, a requirement below Section 69(A).

Twitter has obtained blocking orders from the Ministry to dam 1,474 accounts and 175 tweets. In its petition, the corporate has sought that the particular blocking orders be put aside by the courtroom as they “fall foul” of the “narrowly tailored” grounds of Section 69 (A) of the IT Act. While calling a number of the blocking orders “unconstitutional”, the corporate has stated: “The blocking orders are challenged on the basis that they are procedurally and substantially non-compliant with Section 69A, are manifestly arbitrary, fail to provide the originators prior notice and are disproportionate in several cases”.

“The blocking orders fall foul of Section 69A both substantively and procedurally and ought to be quashed,” Twitter’s petition mentions. It has additional urged that the Ministry modify the challenged blocking orders to establish particular tweets which are violative of Section 69A and revoke the account suspensions.

It is learnt that the particular particulars in regards to the accounts and tweets that had been ordered by the Ministry to be taken down have been submitted to the courtroom by Twitter in a sealed envelope, since Section 69 (A) orders are purported to be saved confidential. The firm additionally stated after it obtained non-compliance notices by the Ministry in June, it responded to the notices and “complied under protest”.

Last month, the MeitY had given the corporate “one last opportunity” to adjust to its blocking orders issued below Section 69 (A) or threat shedding its immunity as an middleman, which shields it from authorized motion in opposition to content material posted by customers on its platform.

The IT Ministry and Twitter didn’t reply to a direct request for remark.

Section 69 (A) of the IT Act, 2000, permits the Centre to situation blocking orders to social media intermediaries “in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognisable offence relating to above”. As per guidelines that govern these blocking orders, any request made for blocking by the federal government is additional despatched to a evaluation committee, which then points remaining instructions.

The petition additionally reveals the fixed backwards and forwards that occurred between the Ministry and Twitter over blocking orders issued between February 2021 and February 2022.

This contains the IT Ministry sending not less than 10 separate blocking orders to the corporate, directing it to take down over a thousand accounts within the specified timeframe, the corporate writing to the Ministry asking it to rethink a few of its orders, Twitter’s compliance officer being summoned by the IT Ministry not less than two occasions in a span of two days, and the Ministry revoking a blocking order it had earlier issued to the corporate.