A campaign on twitter, #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide has led to Government of India issuing a notice to the social media giant. The GoI has called it motivated and factually incorrect campaign, intended to abuse, inflame and create tensions in the society on unsubstantiated grounds.
Further, the GoI slammed twitter for unilaterally unblocking handles despite the Centre ordering action to be taken against them. The Indian government said twitter was an intermediary and were obliged to obey the direction of the government. Refusal to do so would invite penal action.
Twitter had blocked the handles of the accounts for a brief while even though the order had been communicated to them a day earlier. Thus the content remained on public domain, allowed it to be shared and retweeted multiple times without any basis.
Apparently twitter, in its reply on February 1, had decided not to abide by and obey the orders of the Government of India.
Government of India drew the instance of January 26 and noted the incitement to genocide was not freedom of speech. Further, twitter can’t assume the role of a Court and justify non-compliance, said the government. And that it couldn’t sit as an appellate authority over the satisfaction of the authorities about its potential impact on derailing public order.
The Centre has warned twitter of facing action for non-compliance as per Section 69A(3) which provides for specific penal consequences in case of the non-compliance of orders issued under Section 69A of the Information and Technology Act 2000. The Centre categorically asked Twitter to once again block the handles and the hashtag that were decided and communicated by the Committee.
Twitter had temporarily withheld (for around 4 hours) around 250 accounts in India, including that of Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar stating that the action was taken “in response to a legal demand”, which has turned out to be from the government of India. On the accounts being withheld, Prasar Bharati had raised objections and sought an explanation from Twitter India.
Shortly after, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) issued a statement confirming that 250 Tweets/ Twitter accounts which were using the #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide hashtag were withheld. These accounts, as per the statement, were making “fake, intimidatory and provocative Tweets on Saturday, 30”. The statement further said that the request originated from the Ministry of Home Affairs and law enforcement agencies in order to “prevent any escalation of law and order in view of the on-going farmer agitation.”