Twitter 'withholds' journalist Rana Ayyub's account in India
New Delhi, June 27: Journalist Rana Ayyub on Sunday shared a notice from Twitter which informed her that the microblogging site has withheld her account in India under Information Technology Act, 2000.
Taking to Twitter, Ayyub on Sunday posted the notice and said: "Hello @Twitter, what exactly is this?"
The notice shared by Ayyub read: "In order to comply with Twitter's obligations under India's local laws, we have withheld the following account in India under the country's Information Technology Act, 2000: the content remains available elsewhere."
"As Twitter strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of the people who use our service, it is our policy to notify account holders if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account. We provide notice whether or not the user lives in the country where the request originated," it further said.
In response to Ayyub's tweet, tennis legend Martina Navaratolina stated, "So who is next?!? Just awful..." while tagging Rana Ayyub and Twitter on her post.
Former CEO of Prasar Bharati, Shashi Shekhar Vempati also reacted to the notice and said that it could be "either a bug or a delayed reaction to past incidents."
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"Noticed many hyperventilating tweets regarding so called online censorship by Govt of India via @TwitterIndia. It either seems to be a bug or a delayed reaction to past incidents for I too have received such an email from @Twitter overnight for the incident last year," Vempati said on Twitter. She also shared an email with a similar message that he had received.
Vempati further tweeted, "Including an account withheld in India message from @Twitter @TwitterIndia. Perhaps the "celebrity Islamophobia Activist" can pipe down and stop claiming victimhood."
Vempati was one of the individuals whose accounts were withheld last year based on the request of the Ministry of Home Affairs and law enforcement agencies to prevent any escalation of the law and order situation during the farmers' agitation.
As per Twitter, an account withheld message means that the microblogging site "was compelled to withhold the entire account specified (e.g., @username) in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order."
Twitter's policy also says that it may be necessary to withhold accounts in case of a "valid and properly scoped request from an authorised entity. "
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-PTC News
