News Analysis India

Tag: Twitter

  • Lockdown tweet: HC orders quashing of FIR against Navi Mumbai resident

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said a tweet by a Navi Mumbai woman about a gathering of migrants at the Bandra terminus during the lockdown last year did not amount to any wrongdoing, and ordered for quashing of an FIR registered against her.

    Sunaina Holey had approached the HC last year through her counsel Dr Abhinav Chandrachud, seeking that the FIR registered against her by the Mumbai police be quashed.

    She was booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 153-A for vilifying a particular religious group or community, after she tweeted about a large group of migrants who had gathered at the Bandra terminus during the first phase of the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown in 2020.

    In its verdict on Wednesday, the HC bench of Justices S S Shinde and M S Karnik said Holey’s tweet had not named any particular community and did not create any enmity between communities.

    “By no stretch of imagination it can be said that the tweet created enmity between two groups of communities. It is revealed from the contents of the complaint that no community was named, there was no hatred,” the court said.

    The HC said if a prudent person were to judge Holey’s tweets, he or she would see there was no element “mens rea (intention of wrongdoing)” on Holey’s part.

    Senior advocate Manoj Mohite, who appeared for the Maharashtra government, sought a stay on the verdict to enable the state to take appropriate steps.

    However, the HC refused the request saying there was no question of a stay since it had ordered for the FIR to be quashed.

    “We do appreciate the efforts made by the police to keep a vigil on social media platforms in such situations,” the HC said.

    However, the FIR in the present case does not reveal the commission of any offence, and this is a “fit case to quash the FIR,” the court said.

    During previous hearings, Mohite told the HC that Holey had over 20,000 followers and her tweets had a large reach, and she could be considered a “professional tweeter”.

    Holey’s counsel, advocate Chandrachud however, had argued that merely having a large follower count did not make Holey a professional tweeter.

    He had also said that Holey’s tweet did not mention any particular religious community and it had not resulted in any untoward incident.

    Holey also has two other FIRs against her for some other tweets made last year.

    Her pleas seeking quashing of those FIRs are pending in the HC and will be heard independently, the court said.

  • Twitter To Introduce Ticketing For Audio “Spaces” Feature

    Twitter Inc said on Monday it will introduce a new feature to let users charge admission to their live audio chat rooms in its “Spaces” feature, as the social media company seeks to court more content creators.

    Until now, only some users who were part of Twitter’s pilot testing were able to host their own Space. Starting on Monday, any user with at least 600 followers can be a host, the company added.

    Twitter introduced Spaces last year to compete with viral app Clubhouse, which jump-started the audio chat trend and attracted celebrities and entrepreneurs, but remains limited as an invite-only app.

    Over the coming months, Twitter said a limited group of users will be able to sell tickets to access their Spaces conversations, and will determine their own pricing and how many tickets to make available. Hosts will keep the majority of the revenue, while Twitter will earn a “small amount,” the company added.

    The move is part of Twitter’s effort to be a bigger player in the “creator economy,” as influencers and independent writers are increasingly earning money from their content on platforms like YouTube or Substack.

  • Twitter India suspends account impersonating CJI N V Ramana

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter India Monday swung into action on complaint of Supreme Court’s Registry and suspended a Twitter account impersonating 48th Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana who is not on any social media platforms.

    Sources, privy to the development, told PTI that the Supreme Court Registry detected the fake Twitter handle with the name @NVRamanma with the name and designation of the CJI in the profile.

    Taking note of the complaint of the apex court’s registry, the social media giant suspended the account during the day, they said.

    “Since CJI N V Ramana is not on any social media platforms, Registry has asked Delhi Police to investigate the same, ” one of the sources said.

    Hailing from an agriculturist family of Ponnavaram village of Andhra Pradesh’s Krishna district, Justice N V Ramana was sworn in as 48th CJI by President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday.

  • Centre asks Twitter, Facebook to pull down posts critical of handling COVID crisis

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter and other social media platforms have removed about 100 posts and URLs after the government asked them to remove content that was critical of the handling of the current medical crisis or spreading fake news around the pandemic.

    Twitter said it has notified the impacted account holders of its action taken in response to a legal request from the Indian government, while Facebook did not comment on the issue.

    Sources said the companies have complied with the order.

    However, it wasn’t immediately known what the removed posts were.

    Meanwhile, government sources said the IT Ministry, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Home Affairs, asked the social media platforms to remove the posts and URLs (uniform resource locators) to “prevent obstructions in the fight against the pandemic” and disruption of public order due to the said posts.

    They added that the order was issued in view of the misuse of social media platforms by certain users to spread fake or misleading information and create panic about the pandemic in the society “by using unrelated, old and out of the context images or visuals, communally sensitive posts and misinformation about COVID-19 protocols”.

    Although reports suggested that the posts critical of government handling of the medical crisis were asked to be removed, sources said the government is open to criticism and suggestions in the collective fight against COVID-19.

    However, they said it is necessary to take action against those users who are “misusing” social media during this grave humanitarian crisis for unethical purposes.

    Twitter removed or restricted access to more than 50 posts in the past one month at the behest of the government, including tweets that criticized its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Other posts removed showed pictures and videos of a recent Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh.

    Earlier this year, more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

    India is registering a record number of COVID cases daily.

    The number of new COVID infections touched 3,49,691 cases and 2,767 fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday at 8 am.

    A Twitter spokesperson said when it receives a valid legal request, it reviews it under both Twitter Rules and local law.

    “If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service.

    If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only.

    The legal requests that we receive are detailed in the bianual Twitter Transparency Report, and requests to withhold content are published on Lumen,” the spokesperson said.

    Reports citing Lumen database (an independent research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content) suggested that more than 50 posts – including those by a Member of Parliament, MLA and filmmakers – were removed by Twitter on government request.

    The microblogging platform emphasised that it is committed to the principles of openness and transparency, and that it tackles misinformation based on the highest potential for harm.

    It noted that it is tackling COVID-19 misinformation using a combination of product, technology, and human review.

  • Omar Abdullah takes to Twitter to amplify SOS messages from COVID patients

    By PTI
    SRINAGAR: Amid an unprecedented surge in coronavirus cases, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah, who is popular on Twitter with 3.2 million followers, on Sunday started amplifying distress and SOS messages from COVID patients and their relatives from across the country.

    Omar, who tested positive for COVID days after taking the first vaccine dose, said he could understand the feelings of those who have their loved ones hospitalised due to the infection.

    “I want to be able to help people through this crisis as best I can because I know what’s it like to have a loved one in hospital fighting against COVID.

    To that end I’ve opened up my DMs for now & will amplify every message requesting/offering help,” Omar said before re-tweeting and re-posting SOS messages from across the country.

    Omar’s father and Lok Sabha member from Srinagar, Farooq Abdullah, had to be hospitalised after testing positive for the infection after getting his vaccine dose.

    “I know, in the grand scheme of things, it may not amount to much but every little bit helps & if even one individual benefits from a tweet of mine I’ll consider myself extremely fortunate,” Omar tweeted.

      The National Conference vice president, however, made it clear to his followers that he would not be endorsing or re-tweeting any requests for donation.

      “I apologise in advance but I won’t be tweeting requests for donations/funds because I have no way of independently verifying the antecedents of the people/organisations seeking to raise funds,” he added.

     

  • Centre asks Twitter, Facebook to pull down posts critical of handling COVID crisis

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter and other social media platforms have removed about 100 posts and URLs after the government asked them to remove content that was critical of the handling of the current medical crisis or spreading fake news around the pandemic.

    Twitter said it has notified the impacted account holders of its action taken in response to a legal request from the Indian government, while Facebook did not comment on the issue.

    Sources said the companies have complied with the order.

    However, it wasn’t immediately known what the removed posts were.

    Meanwhile, government sources said the IT Ministry, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Home Affairs, asked the social media platforms to remove the posts and URLs (uniform resource locators) to “prevent obstructions in the fight against the pandemic” and disruption of public order due to the said posts.

    They added that the order was issued in view of the misuse of social media platforms by certain users to spread fake or misleading information and create panic about the pandemic in the society “by using unrelated, old and out of the context images or visuals, communally sensitive posts and misinformation about COVID-19 protocols”.

    Although reports suggested that the posts critical of government handling of the medical crisis were asked to be removed, sources said the government is open to criticism and suggestions in the collective fight against COVID-19.

    However, they said it is necessary to take action against those users who are “misusing” social media during this grave humanitarian crisis for unethical purposes.

    Twitter removed or restricted access to more than 50 posts in the past one month at the behest of the government, including tweets that criticized its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

    Other posts removed showed pictures and videos of a recent Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh.

    Earlier this year, more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

    India is registering a record number of COVID cases daily.

    The number of new COVID infections touched 3,49,691 cases and 2,767 fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday at 8 am.

    A Twitter spokesperson said when it receives a valid legal request, it reviews it under both Twitter Rules and local law.

    “If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service.

    If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only.

    The legal requests that we receive are detailed in the bianual Twitter Transparency Report, and requests to withhold content are published on Lumen,” the spokesperson said.

    Reports citing Lumen database (an independent research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content) suggested that more than 50 posts – including those by a Member of Parliament, MLA and filmmakers – were removed by Twitter on government request.

    The microblogging platform emphasised that it is committed to the principles of openness and transparency, and that it tackles misinformation based on the highest potential for harm.

    It noted that it is tackling COVID-19 misinformation using a combination of product, technology, and human review.

  • Case lodged over fake Twitter accounts of Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik

    By PTI
    SHILLONG: A case was registered and investigation started after several fake Twitter accounts of Meghalaya Governor Satya Pal Malik were detected, officials said on Sunday.

    The case was lodged after Raj Bhavan took up the matter with the Director-General of Police on Friday, they said.

    Raj Bhavan secretary Pravin Bakshi submitted a list of the fake Twitter accounts created in the name of Malik.

    “The imposters posted derogatory and offensive materials which are prejudicial to the high office of the Governor of Meghalaya and which in no way reflect his views,” Bakshi said.

    The Twitter accounts were made with the intentions of cheating, committing fraud, harming and maligning the reputation of the governor in violation of the Information Technology Act, he added.

    Malik had on March 24 created a Twitter account, having the username of @SatyapalMalik6, and that is his official Twitter handle, the official said.

    At least eight fake Twitter accounts using Malik’s name and photos were reported to the police, Bakshi said.

    A senior police officer told PTI that a case has been registered and an investigation started to nab those behind the fake accounts.

  • Any attempt to create imperialism of internet by few companies unacceptable: Prasad

    Speaking during Question Hour on the banning of Twitter accounts, Prasad said the government welcomes dissent but cannot allow misuse or abuse of social media.

  • New social media rules lack Parliament’s assent, bureaucrats may misuse vast powers: Congress

    Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi did say social media cannot be left unregulated, but added no attempt should be made to control it through non-statutory rules.