New Delhi has sent a legal directive to social media Twitter to remove tweets criticizing the Indian government’s move to combat coronavirus infection. News Reuters.
A Twitter spokesman told Reuters that New Delhi had issued an immediate order to remove some tweets critical of the government. The government’s application mentions the Information Technology Act of India, 2000. Several tweets have been blocked at the request of the Indian government.
According to Twitter, published in the Lumen Database, a project at Harvard University in the United States, a legal request was made to the Indian government on April 23 and included 21 tweets. The tweets also include the tweets of Revnath Reddy, a lawmaker, Malay Ghatak, a minister in the West Bengal state government, and Abinash Das, a filmmaker.
A Twitter spokesman said in a statement: “When we receive a valid legal request, we review it in terms of Twitter’s policies and local laws.” If the content violates Twitter’s policy, it is immediately removed. If it does not violate Twitter’s policy but is considered illegal under the law of a certain legal area, then we block access to that tweet only from that area, i.e. India.
