News Analysis India

Tag: Twitter

  • Bombay HC to hear plea for Kangana’s Twitter account suspension on March 9

    By PTI
    MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said it would hear a plea seeking either suspension or termination of the Twitter account of Kangana Ranaut on March 9 though the petitioner sought an urgent hearing claiming the actor recently posted a tweet calling the protesting farmers as “terrorists”.

    The petitioner Ali Kashif Khan Deshmukh, who is an advocate, on Tuesday moved an application before a division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale seeking urgent hearing on his petition, filed in December last year, seeking termination of Ranaut’s Twitter account.

    In his application, Deshmukh cited certain tweets posted by Ranaut on Twitter in which she allegedly called the farmers, who are protesting at Delhi’s borders against the three new farm laws, as “terrorists”.

    The bench said it would be able to hear the plea only on March 9.

    In his petition, Deshmukh had claimed that Ranaut’s posts on Twitter were spreading hatred among different religious communities.

    The Maharashtra government had, however, opposed the plea, saying it was vague.

    Last week, Twitter India had removed two of the tweets by Ranaut, citing a violation of the platform’s rules.

    The actor has been criticising protesting farmers over their agitations against the Centre’s three farm laws.

    Ranaut has been actively posting on Twitter since last Tuesday when international pop star Rihanna came out in support of the farmers’ agitations.

    On February 5, a magistrate’s court in Mumbai directed the police to submit a progress report on the inquiry it had ordered into a complaint filed by Deshmukh against Ranaut and her sister for posting alleged hateful messages on social media.

  • Twitter gets government notice for unblocking accounts related to farmer genocide hashtags

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: The government has sent a notice to Twitter, directing the microblogging site to comply with its order to remove contents and accounts related to farmer genocide hashtags. If Twitter did not comply with action, it may face penal action, according to sources.

    Twitter refused to comment on this issue when this newspaper reached out to it.  

    Earlier, Twitter had blocked around 250 accounts, following an order from the Ministry of Electronics and IT. According to sources, Twitter had unilaterally unblocked accounts and tweets despite the specific order. 

    Twitter cannot justify non-compliance as it was an “intermediary” and was obliged to “obey” direction of government, sources added.

    The government notice also quoted over half a dozen Supreme Court judgments including of constitutional benches as to what is public order and what the rights of authorities are.

    The MeiTY had directed Twitter to block accounts on the request of the MHA and law enforcement agencies to prevent any “escalation of law and order” in view of the ongoing farmer agitation, according to an earlier order.

    Twitter had temporarily suspended the accounts citing it was in response to a “legal demand”.

    However, the account holders had said there was no intimation from Twitter before the accounts were blocked.

    “Incitement to genocide is a grave threat to public order and therefore the Ministry of Electronics and I-T ordered for blocking of these accounts and tweets under Section 6A of the I-T Act,” said the order, adding that several accounts were using the hashtag of ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide, and were making “fake and provocative” tweets. 

    In a strongly-worded notice to Twitter, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said it had on January 31 asked the micro-blogging site to block 257 URLs (web addresses) and one hashtag under the relevant provision of the law as they were “spreading misinformation about (farmer) protests and has the potential to lead to imminent violence affecting public order situation in the country.”

    “Twitter chose to sit over the request for one full day before blocking them, only to unblock them a few hours later.  This was not taken kindly by the government and a fresh order/notice has been issued to Twitter to comply, failing which penal action under sections that provide for fine and jail up to 7 years has been warned,” sources with direct knowledge of the development said.

    Section 69A of the Information Technology Act gives the central government powers to direct an intermediary like Twitter to “block for access for the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted” in any computer if it is “satisfied that the same is necessary or expedient in order to prevent incitement” of any offence, the notice said.

    The accounts that were blocked – and then restored – included those of news magazine Caravan, Kisan Ekta Morcha, tribal leader Hansraj Meena, and actor Sushant Singh.

    According to Twitter, it held meetings with government officials and conveyed that the accounts and posts in question constitute free speech and are newsworthy.

    The company then “unwithheld” the accounts to protect public conversation.

    The other accounts that were initially withheld included those of CPM politician Mohd Salim, farm organisation BKU Ekta Ugrahan and Tractor2Twitter.

    The move was criticised by politicians and civil rights activists.

    On Twitter’s plea of such blocking impacting freedom of speech, the notice said Twitter has no constitutional, statutory or any legal basis to comment upon the interplay of statutory provisions with constitutional principles.

    “The direction to block the hashtag ‘#ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide’ has been found to be instigating people to commit cognizable offences in relation to public order and security of the state,” it said adding the impracticability or disproportionality of the said measure cannot be decided by an intermediary which is bound by the orders of the central government.

    It sought banning of the hashtag accompanied by the content that is attached to it by the users using the same.

    “Apart from the fact that the hashtag itself is provocative, the assertion of Twitter in its letter dated February 1, 2021, that stock phrases and exaggerations/crude emotional appeals do not constitute inflammatory speech in light of the judgments of the Supreme Court, is meritless as the content attached to the said hashtag has been found to be directly falling afoul” to law, it said.

    The ministry said a committee that reviewed the January 31 order and the reply by Twitter a day later, has confirmed the decision to block the said handles and hashtag.

    “After the hearing was concluded on February 1 also the interim order continued to remain in operation despite which you chose not to comply with the mandate of law and the order passed by the competent authority legally endowed with the jurisdiction to pass the same.

    “Instead, you chose to send a communication dated 1.2. 2021 received by the undersigned on 1.2.2021 at 19.37, attempting to give justification, thereby not only admitting that you have not complied with the order, but also seeking to justify non-compliance,” it said.

    It went on to state that Twitter cannot assume the role of a court.

    Having considered Twitter’s response, “the competent authority is satisfied that it is necessary and also expedient in the interest of public order and also for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to public order that Twitter. is once again directed to block for access by the public, the said Twitter handles and also the said hashtag with immediate effect,” the notice said giving details of the handles to be blocked.

    Failure to do so would invoke Section 69A[3] for specific penal consequences, it added.

    Section 69A(3) in The Information Technology Act, 2000 provides that “the intermediary who fails to comply with the direction issued under sub-section (1) shall be punished with an imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Ex-SAD leader sends legal notice to Twitter to delete Kangana’s defamatory tweet against farmers

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Manjit Singh GK has sent a legal notice to social media giant Twitter asking it to immediately delete the account of Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut for tweeting alleged defamatory statements against farmers.

    The legal notice, which was sent to the Managing Director of Twitter in Maharashtra on Tuesday through e-mail, said the posts by the actress are factually incorrect and are maligning or tarnishing the image, reputation and goodwill of farmers and the entire Sikh community associated with them.

    The notice, sent through advocate Naginder Benipal, said it was given for attacking the three farm laws passed by the Central Government with the assent of the President.

    Referring to Ranaut’s tweet, it said that on February 2, she had replied to a tweet of international pop star Ms.Rihanna who had tweeted “why aren’t we talking about this?! #FarmersProtest”.

    In her reply, Ranaut tweeted “No one is talking about it because they are not farmers they are terrorists who are trying to divide India, so that China can take over our vulnerable broken nation and make it a Chinese colony much like USA.”

    The notice claimed that the actress was using her fan following to try and defame the farmers and the Sikh community so associated with it and has declared them anti-national by claiming them to be terrorists who are trying to weaken the strength and protection of the country.

    “My client is very concerned and serious in protecting the integrity of the nation, the farmers and the entire Sikh community and will not accept such derogatory, false and malicious statements against the farmers,” Benipal said in the notice.

    It said Singh, President of Jagg Asra Guru Ott (JAGO) a religious party, has taken objection to the actress’ act and he is constrained to issue this legal notice to Twitter to delete her account immediately to stop her from harming the peace of the nation.

    “In the light of the aforesaid, it is requested that the said tweets be taken down/ blocked off from your web portal with immediate effect. The said defamatory/ disparaging/ denigrating (statements) have already been reported on your web portal as per the procedure prescribed albeit they are available for public viewership till date.

    Kindly note, that if the said tweets are not take down and her account is not blocked from your platform, then you shall be considered liable for the defamatory content and as such we reserve our right to initiate appropriate legal proceedings as per law which shall be at your sole risk and consequences,” the notice said.

    It also said that if the company fails to comply with the notice, it shall be solely at its risk and consequences and that Singh would be entitled to seek recourse of all legal remedies.

  • Twitter restores several accounts it had ‘withheld’ amid ongoing farmer protests

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter has restored several accounts it had “withheld” on Monday after the government had asked it to take action against 250 handles which had posted “false and provocative content” related to the ongoing farmers’ agitation, according to sources.

    These withheld accounts included those of Kisan Ekta Morcha and BKU Ekta Urgahan that have thousands of followers and have been actively involved in the ongoing protests, which have now resumed online activities.

    According to the sources, “Twitter blocked some accounts under its ‘Country Withheld Content’ policy in response to a valid legal request from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.”

    However, in subsequent meetings with the government officials, Twitter is learnt to have conveyed that the accounts and tweets in question constitute “free speech” and are “newsworthy” and thereafter the tweets and accounts have been “unwithheld”.

    Upon searching for accounts including Kisan Ekta Morcha (@Kisanektamorcha) and BKU Ekta Urgahan (@Bkuektaugrahan) — a message saying “account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand” was displayed on Monday.

    Besides these, several other individual and organisation accounts, including one of a media outlet and another of a senior functionary of a separate entity, were also withheld, even as debates started on social media over the development.

    The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) had directed Twitter to block around 250 tweets/Twitter accounts that were making “fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets” on January 30 with hashtags accusing the Modi government of planning farmers “genocide” without any further substantiation, according to the sources.

    This blocking was done at the request of the Ministry of Home Affairs and law enforcement agencies to prevent any escalation of law and order in view of the ongoing farmer agitation, they said.

    The sources said incitement to genocide is a grave threat to public order and therefore, MeitY ordered blocking of these Twitter accounts and tweets under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

    When contacted, a Twitter spokesperson had Monday said if it receives 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.”

    The development came in the wake of violence in Delhi on January 26 during a tractor parade of farmers, protesting against the three new central agriculture laws.

    The Delhi Police is currently probing the Republic Day violence, wherein it has lodged multiple FIRs and booked, among others, several farmer leaders leading the protests at the national capital’s borders since the past two months.

    FIRs have been lodged against some journalists as well.

  • FIR against Shashi Tharoor, Rajdeep Sardesai others for seditious tweets on farmer’s death during tractor rally

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Noida Police has registered FIR against eight people including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and six journalists–Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pandey, group editor of National Herald Zafar Agha, and editors of The Caravan magazine Paresh Nath, Anant Nath, Vinod K Jose for allegedly misreporting, provoking, and spreading communal disharmony during the clashes between the police and protesting farmers on Republic Day.

    The FIR has been registered under various sections of Indian penal code (IPC) dealing with sedition and for promoting enmity between different groups, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace, incite violence, and criminal conspiracy.

    The complainant Arpit Mishra, a 35-year-old resident of Noida, accused them of broadcasting offensive, misleading and provocative news that the police had killed a protestor driving the tractor. The accused also retweeted news in question through their social media handle, the FIR further says, which was lodged at Sector 20 police station.

    “The complaint is being examined and action as per the law is being taken,” said a press statement by the Noida Police.

    The FIR says that the accused acted in a prejudiced manner which jeopardised national security and public safety.

    ALSO READ | Will not be intimidated by Delhi Police notices, govt trying to end movement: Samyukta Kisan Morcha

    “As part of a conspiracy, the accused planned riots in the national capital with intention to kill public servants and incite violence….It is known fact that despite provocative activities by rowdy elements and injuries to large number of police personnel, the police force acted with restraint and control the violators with professional efficiency,” the complainant in the FIR says.

    Sardesai, consulting editor with India Today group, on January, 26 tweeted that a farmer Navneet Singh was allegedly killed in police firing during the tractor rally. However, Police said the farmer died after his tractor overturned.

    “The accused in a well-planned manner conspired with each other to spread the wrong information about the death of a farmer in police firing. It was intentionally done to incite riots at large scale and create tension among communities. The riots and tension certainly affect countries along the international border…because of their tweets protestors reached Red Fort and installed their religious and other flags where the national was hoisted,” the FIR also says.    

  • Blocked links which showed deceased woman as Hathras rape victim: FB, Google, Twitter to HC

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Social media platforms Facebook, Google and Twitter on Thursday told the Delhi High Court that they have blocked or taken down all the links which incorrectly showed a deceased woman’s photo as that of the Hathras rape victim.

    The submission was made before Justice Prathiba M Singh by the three platforms in response to the court’s November 23, 2020 direction to remove all those links which showed the deceased woman as the rape victim.

    The court had also said that “a victim cannot go on searching for links and making complaints. There has to be some other solution.”

    The November 23, 2020 order had been passed on a plea moved by a man who had contended that a photograph of his deceased wife was being circulated on various social media platforms wrongly depicting her as the victim of the unfortunate incident of rape and murder of a young girl at Hathras, Uttar Pradesh.

    On Thursday, during the hearing, the counsel for the husband told the court that all the links to the objectionable content have not been removed by Facebook and sought time to place on record the existing links/urls.

    The court, thereafter, gave him time till April 12 to place on record the links/urls which are yet to be removed.

    The petitioner has also contended in his plea that even otherwise, revelation of the identity of the rape victim is an offence under the Indian Penal Code, though in the present matter image of a wrong person is in circulation.

    A 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped by four upper-caste men in Hathras on September 14, 2020.

    She died on September 29, 2020 at Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital during treatment.

  • Over 550 Twitter accounts suspended after violence during farmers’ Republic Day tractor rally

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter on Wednesday suspended over 550 accounts from its platform in connection with the violence during the farmers’ tractor rally in the national capital on the 72nd Republic Day.

    A Twitter spokesperson told ANI that the platform has also labelled tweets which were found to be in violation of its “synthetic and manipulated media policy”.

    “We have taken strong enforcement action to protect the conversation on the service from attempts to incite violence, abuse, and threats that could trigger the risk of offline harm by blocking certain terms that violate our rules for trends, the spokesperson said.

    “Using a combination of technology and human review, Twitter worked at scale and took action on hundreds of accounts and Tweets that have been in violation of the Twitter Rules, and suspended more than 550 accounts engaged in spam and platform manipulation,” the spokesperson told ANI.

    ALSO READ: Top farmers’ union leaders named in Delhi police FIR over R-Day violence

    The microblogging platform said that it had applied labels to tweets that were found to be in violation of synthetic and manipulated media policy.

    “We are monitoring the situation closely and remain vigilant, and strongly encourage those on the service to report anything they believe is in violation of the rules,” the Twitter spokesperson said.

    Farmers broke through barricades to enter Delhi and resorted to vandalism across several parts of the national capital during their Kisan tractor rally against the Centre’s three new farm laws on January 26.

    Several public and private properties were damaged in acts of vandalism by the mob. A total of 22 FIRs have been registered regarding the violence, in which over 300 police personnel were injured.

    Delhi Police has detained 200 people in connection with the violence.

    Farmers have been protesting on the different borders of the national capital since November 26 last year against the three newly enacted farm laws – Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and farm Services Act 2020 and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. 

  • Twitter war between Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav over demand of Bharat Ratna for Karpoori Thakur

    By Express News Service
    PATNA: A war of words was waged between chief minister Nitish Kumar and leader of opposition of RJD Tejashwi Yadav on Twitter on the eve of Republic Day over the demand of Bharat Ratna to veteran socialist leader and former CM (Late) Karpoori Thakur.

    Replying to a tweet by Tejashwi Yadav on the question of awarding Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur, Nitish Kumar stated that he has recommended four times to the Centre for according Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur.

    Tejashwi had first tweeted that demand of Bharat Ratna for Karpoori Thakur was an old demand of RJD. “Despite 39 MPs out of 40 from Bihar being from NDA, the double –engine government has not been able to get the Bharat Ratna to Karpoori Thakur. Is it because he (Karpoori Thakur) belongs to a disadvantaged group? Why does the CM not specifically meet the PM for this? Tejashwi Yadav taunted through a tweet.

    Yadav further asked Nitish Kumar should support his demand for Bharat Ratna for Karpoori Thakur.

    Responding to him, Nitish Kumar for the first time replied to Tejashwi Yadav’s tweet through his twitter handle and said “We have already sent our recommendation to the central government for awarding Bharat Ratan to Jannayak Karpoori Thakur”, 

    Nitish Kumar further stated that Thakur’s name was recommended for Bharat Ratna in the years 2007, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

    “Our wish is that Jannayak Karpoori Thakur be conferred with the Bharat Ratna”, Nitish Kumar said.

    Karpoori Thakur was born in 1924 in a poor barber family in Bihar’s Samastipur district and served as the chief minister of state from December 1970 to June 1971 as the leader of Socilaist party and from December 1977 to April 1979 as the leader of Janta Party. Thakur became MLA for the first time in 1952 from Samastipur’s Tajpur seat as socialist party candidate.

    Earlier, he had served as a village teacher had participated in the Quit India movement and was jailed for 26 months.  

    As votary of Hindu language, Karpoori Thakur had removed English as compulsory subject for the class 10th curriculum. He was an honest politician, who didn’t buy single property throughout his life and remained easily avaibale and accessible to the people even when he was the CM earning him the name ‘Jannayak’ (Hero of people).

  • Parliamentary panel members raise issue of Twitter locking Shah’s account temporarily in 2020

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Members of a parliamentary committee on Thursday raised the issue of Twitter temporarily locking the account of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2020 as well as misrepresentation of the Indian map by the micro-blogging site, sources said.

    The parliamentary standing committee on Information Technology on Thursday interacted separately with representatives of Facebook, Twitter and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the issue of safeguarding citizens’ rights, preventing misuse of social news media platforms and women security in the digital space.

    During the interaction with Twitter representatives, some members, mostly from the ruling BJP, raised the issue of the platform locking the account of Shah for a short period late last year, sources said after the meeting.

    Some BJP members questioned the fact-checking mechanism at Twitter and wondered how the account of country’s home minister was locked.

    Twitter had then said that Shah’s account was temporarily locked due to an “inadvertent error” and the decision was reversed immediately.

    Shah’s Twitter display picture was removed by Twitter in response to a “report from the copyright holder”.

    Committee members also flagged the issue of Twitter misrepresenting the Indian map, a member said.

    When some members asked the basis of on which Twitter was removing contents and blocking accounts the company representatives said they want to create a “healthy platform”.

    But some members were not satisfied and sought details on how decisions were made to block some accounts and leave others, a member said.

  • GoAir sacks senior pilot for making derogatory remarks about PM Narendra Modi on Twitter

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: GoAir has sacked a senior pilot who made derogatory remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter on Thursday.

    “GoAir has terminated the services of the Captain with immediate effect,” the airline’s spokesperson said on Saturday when asked about the objectionable tweets by pilot Miki Malik.

    Captain Malik, who made the remarks about the prime minister on Thursday, has deleted the offensive tweets and locked his account on Twitter.

    GoAir spokesperson said the airline has a zero-tolerance policy on such matters and it is mandatory for its employees to comply with the company’s employment rules, regulations and policies, including social media behaviour.

    “The airline does not associate itself with personal views expressed by any individual or an employee,” the spokesperson noted.