Twitter is in no mood of playing around with India’s government as the platform was recently seen mounting a heavy legal challenge against orders to remove content.
The company recently filed a high-profile petition at the country’s high court located in the state of Karnataka. And that is where the social media giant was seen battling against numerous orders as recently reported by the WP.
The harsh reaction by the company comes amid a letter that was sent out by the Indian Government last month where it warned the social networking site of a number of consequences if they failed to oblige to their demands.
As per an estimate, the country has a staggering 24 million count of active users on the app but that didn’t stop Twitter from pulling forward with the legal battle.
It is believed that just a few moments after the petition had been filed, one of India’s federal ministers was seen tweeting how it was obligatory for different international social media apps to fulfill the demands put forward as per the Indian state law.
In the same way, he did reveal how all social media platforms could take the decision to the court of law for review. But what was shocking was how the tone of the letter had declared this to be the final chance that the government was giving to Twitter to oblige to its ‘unfair’ blocking orders.
The orders have been stated to fall under the country’s IT Law which gives government authorities the chance to remove any online content that they feel provides a threat to the state’s security and the current law and order situation.
Meanwhile, it was interesting to note how Indian officials mentioned that Twitter was now resorting to legal means because of how serious the threats were while failing to follow the law would ultimately result in criminal proceedings.
But Twitter has reportedly denied all such rumors and says that all the orders being provided are deficient in substance and have no strong basis to be deemed as a part of the country’s law. In the same way, he revealed how so many of the blocking orders were a clear representation of the excessive use of the country’s government power.
There are a number of cases that simply demand that the platform block whole accounts while there were several official accounts posting information that was strictly limited to political parties.
This seems to be a major play-off and turn of events that have arisen between the current ruling party in India’s government and Twitter.
But this is not too surprising for many as the past holds countless examples of how the government has requested the removal of tweets and blocking of whole accounts. These were justified based upon objections put forward by the public.
One common example is related to an incident in which farmers were protesting against the way the Government was taking care of the economic crisis during the pandemic.
During that time, it is believed that the leading social network had blocked nearly 250 accounts after receiving notice from the court on behalf of the Indian government.
Some of the accounts that were questioned were those related to news magazines, alongside different groups as well as activists who carried on showing support for the farmers during this time.
However, it’s important to note how the app also managed to restore those accounts after a temporary ban of just six hours as it felt the justification being provided by authorities was insufficient.
In 2021, Twitter was welcomed with open arms by India to come forward and carry on with healthy business activities but it was told it would need to abide by state laws, despite having its own policies.
Read next: Twitter's news data shows how users value brands that focus on fundamental issues around Identity
The company recently filed a high-profile petition at the country’s high court located in the state of Karnataka. And that is where the social media giant was seen battling against numerous orders as recently reported by the WP.
The harsh reaction by the company comes amid a letter that was sent out by the Indian Government last month where it warned the social networking site of a number of consequences if they failed to oblige to their demands.
As per an estimate, the country has a staggering 24 million count of active users on the app but that didn’t stop Twitter from pulling forward with the legal battle.
It is believed that just a few moments after the petition had been filed, one of India’s federal ministers was seen tweeting how it was obligatory for different international social media apps to fulfill the demands put forward as per the Indian state law.
In the same way, he did reveal how all social media platforms could take the decision to the court of law for review. But what was shocking was how the tone of the letter had declared this to be the final chance that the government was giving to Twitter to oblige to its ‘unfair’ blocking orders.
The orders have been stated to fall under the country’s IT Law which gives government authorities the chance to remove any online content that they feel provides a threat to the state’s security and the current law and order situation.
Meanwhile, it was interesting to note how Indian officials mentioned that Twitter was now resorting to legal means because of how serious the threats were while failing to follow the law would ultimately result in criminal proceedings.
But Twitter has reportedly denied all such rumors and says that all the orders being provided are deficient in substance and have no strong basis to be deemed as a part of the country’s law. In the same way, he revealed how so many of the blocking orders were a clear representation of the excessive use of the country’s government power.
There are a number of cases that simply demand that the platform block whole accounts while there were several official accounts posting information that was strictly limited to political parties.
This seems to be a major play-off and turn of events that have arisen between the current ruling party in India’s government and Twitter.
But this is not too surprising for many as the past holds countless examples of how the government has requested the removal of tweets and blocking of whole accounts. These were justified based upon objections put forward by the public.
One common example is related to an incident in which farmers were protesting against the way the Government was taking care of the economic crisis during the pandemic.
During that time, it is believed that the leading social network had blocked nearly 250 accounts after receiving notice from the court on behalf of the Indian government.
Some of the accounts that were questioned were those related to news magazines, alongside different groups as well as activists who carried on showing support for the farmers during this time.
However, it’s important to note how the app also managed to restore those accounts after a temporary ban of just six hours as it felt the justification being provided by authorities was insufficient.
In 2021, Twitter was welcomed with open arms by India to come forward and carry on with healthy business activities but it was told it would need to abide by state laws, despite having its own policies.
Read next: Twitter's news data shows how users value brands that focus on fundamental issues around Identity