Twitter explains its response on blocking orders from the Indian Government

New Delhi: In response to the ”authorized requests” from the Central authorities, Twitter on Wednesday knowledgeable that it has taken a number of enforcement actions — together with everlasting suspension of over 500 accounts for clear violations of Twitter’s guidelines.
The social media large in a press release stated, “Separate to our enforcement under the Twitter Rules, over the course of the last 10 days, Twitter has been served with several separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.”
“We took a range of enforcement actions — including permanent suspension in certain cases — against more than 500 accounts escalated across all Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology orders for clear violations of Twitter’s Rules,” the assertion added.

The firm knowledgeable that they took steps to cut back the visibility of the hashtags containing dangerous content material, which included prohibiting them from trending on Twitter.
“Following the reports of violence in recent weeks, we are sharing a granular update on our proactive efforts to enforce our rules and defend our principles in India,” it stated.
This assertion comes amid the ‘Toolkit’ controversy surrounding the continued farmers’ protest.
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We imagine transparency is the muse to selling wholesome public dialog on Twitter and to earn belief. It is essential that individuals perceive our strategy to content material moderation and the way we have interaction with governments all over the world, and that we’re clear concerning the penalties and the outcomes of this work. Our Transparency Report and Lumen proceed to be the locations to go to watch traits within the requests governments make of us, and to evaluate how we function globally.
The values that underpin the Open Internet and free expression are more and more underneath menace all over the world. Following the experiences of violence in New Delhi in latest weeks, we wished to share a granular replace on our proactive efforts to implement our guidelines and defend our ideas in India. Twitter exists to empower voices to be heard, and we proceed to make enhancements to our service so that everybody — irrespective of their views or perspective — feels protected taking part within the public dialog.
Enforcement of the Twitter Rules
Beginning on 26 January 2021, our world staff supplied 24/7 protection and took enforcement motion judiciously and impartially on content material, Trends, Tweets, and accounts that have been in violation of the Twitter Rules — our world coverage framework that governs each Tweet on the service. Specifically, we:
Legal requests from the Indian Government
Separate to our enforcement underneath the Twitter Rules, over the course of the final 10 days, Twitter has been served with a number of separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, underneath Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. Out of those, two have been emergency blocking orders that we quickly complied with however subsequently restored entry to the content material in a fashion that we imagine was in keeping with Indian legislation. After we communicated this to MeitY, we have been served with a non-compliance discover. To set the report straight, here’s a listing of actions we’ve taken because of these blocking orders:
We took steps to cut back the visibility of the hashtags containing dangerous content material, which included prohibiting them from trending on Twitter and showing as really helpful search phrases.
We took a variety of enforcement actions — together with everlasting suspension in sure circumstances — in opposition to greater than 500 accounts escalated throughout all MeitY orders for clear violations of Twitter’s Rules.
Separately, in the present day, we’ve withheld a portion of the accounts recognized within the blocking orders underneath our Country Withheld Content coverage inside India solely. These accounts proceed to be accessible outdoors of India. Because we don’t imagine that the actions we’ve been directed to take are in keeping with Indian legislation, and, in step with our ideas of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we’ve not taken any motion on accounts that consist of stories media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians. To accomplish that, we imagine, would violate their basic proper to free expression underneath Indian legislation. We knowledgeable MeitY of our enforcement actions in the present day, February 10, 2021. We will proceed to keep up dialogue with the Indian authorities and respectfully have interaction with them.
We will proceed to advocate for the fitting of free expression on behalf of the individuals we serve. We are exploring choices underneath Indian legislation — each for Twitter and for the accounts which have been impacted. We stay dedicated to safeguarding the well being of the dialog occurring on Twitter, and strongly imagine that the Tweets ought to circulation.