Twitter restricts some accounts in India following govt demands, suspends over 500

New Delhi: Twitter said it has suspended over 500 accounts and blocked access to several others within India on Wednesday as it partly acceded to a government order to curb spread of misinformation and inflammatory content around farmers' protests.

Twitter, in a blogpost, said it has not blocked accounts consisting of "news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians" as doing so "would violate their fundamental right to free expression" guaranteed under the country's law.

The government, however, termed as unusual Twitter's move to publish the blogpost before a slated talks with the IT Secretary on the issue, as sought by the US company.

Upon the request of Twitter seeking a meeting with the government, the Secretary IT was to engage with senior management of Twitter. In this light, a blog post published prior to this engagement is unusual, IT Ministry said in its response on Koo, a homegrown social networking platform.

Government will share its response soon, the post on Koo said. Koo is being touted as the homegrown contender to Twitter.

The blogpost by Twitter on Wednesday morning had the microblogging platform emphasising it will continue to advocate for the right of free expression of its users and that it is "actively exploring options under Indian law — both for Twitter and for the accounts that have been impacted".

The development comes in the backdrop of the government — on February 4 — ordering Twitter to take down 1,178 accounts with links to Pakistan and Khalistan supporters that were spreading misinformation and provocative content related to the farmers' agitation.

In all, Twitter has taken action against over 1,000 accounts — 500 as sought by the government and an equal number that were found by the company engaging in platform manipulation and spam.

The government had late last month sought blocking of 257 tweets and handles in connection with the agitation by farmers over the new pro-market agricultural laws. Twitter complied, only to restore the accounts hours later. This led to the government issuing a non-compliance notice and a warning of stringent penalties and potential jail terms.

Seeking to clarify its stance, Twitter — in its blogpost on Wednesday — said it had taken steps to reduce the visibility of the hashtags containing harmful content that included prohibiting them from trending on Twitter and appearing as recommended Search terms.

It has "withheld a portion of the accounts identified in the blocking orders" within India, making them accessible only outside the country.

Stating that it has informed the IT Ministry (MeitY) of its enforcement action, Twitter said it has taken a range of enforcement actions against over 500 accounts escalated across all MeitY orders, including permanent suspension in certain cases for violation of its rules.

"...Today, we have withheld a portion of the accounts identified in the blocking orders under our Country Withheld Content policy within India only. These accounts continue to be available outside of India," Twitter said.