Since Twitter and the government came face to face, advertising brands have been constantly monitoring the issue. According to reports, brands advertising on Twitter may consider taking action on Twitter or stepping off Twitter in fear of any such decision.
The negative publicity that is taking place on Twitter’s image can be seen through hashtags like ‘Bain Twitter’, ‘Koo App’, ‘Bain Twitter India’. These hashtags are trending daily on Twitter and millions of people are also tweeting on this subject.
Some people believe that Twitter has created an ax in its own foot by creating a confrontation situation with the Indian government. At the same time, Twitter is reported to have incurred a loss of $ 1.14 billion in the year 2020. In such a situation, in a country with crores of population like India, the risk of confrontation with the government may be costly to Twitter.
It is worth noting that Union Electronics, Information Technology and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Twitter of adopting double standards and said that when violence happens on the Capitol Hill of America, social media restricts the accounts of the President even there. He is backfired on India’s case.
In the Rajya Sabha on Thursday (February 10, 2021), Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “We support the action taken by Twitter after the Capitol Hill incident.” Surprisingly, their stand on the Red Fort violence is different. ”
Following the violence at the Red Fort, the government had instructed Twitter to ban some accounts. The government said that most of these accounts are from Khalistan supporters or even some people who were doing propaganda in connection with the ongoing farmers’ agitation for several months or the violence on January 26 and false content along with inflammatory material And were broadcasting information.
Twitter has finally banned more than 97% of the accounts in the list given by the government following the stern attitude of the central government on Twitter’s stubborn stance. According to reports, the government ordered Twitter to take action on 1,435 Twitter accounts, of which 1,398 accounts have been removed so far.
Apart from this, Twitter has also talked about reorganizing its India team so that it can handle law related matters more efficiently by appointing more senior officers in its local offices. The news came at a time when there was a growing buzz that the Indian government could arrest some top Twitter executives for being arbitrary against India’s laws and disobeying orders.
The IT Ministry had said that these accounts were accounts that posted ‘inflammatory material’ related to farmer protests like ‘genocide of farmers’, and the government had demanded their closure. The government said that most of the accounts running these inflammatory hashtags are supported by Pakistan and Khalistan. IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in the Rajya Sabha that, whether Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or WhatsApp, he is welcome to work in India, he has crores of followers, but he has to follow the Indian Constitution and laws.
According to the Indian Express news, Twitter executives agreed to some structural changes in a meeting with officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Wednesday (February 10, 2021). The ministry emphasized these changes in an effort to better communicate between the Indian government and the global team of Twitter.
Earlier, on Wednesday (February 10, 2021), during a meeting with Twitter executives – Twitter’s Global Public Policy Vice Presidents Monike Meshe and Jim Baker, Union IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sahni clarified that these controversial hashtags should not be used. So there was neither freedom of journalism nor freedom of expression as it can prove to be ‘irresponsible content provocator’.
Ajay Sahni told the representatives of Twitter that India respects freedom of expression and criticism because it is part of our democracy, although freedom of expression is not autocratic and appropriate restrictions apply to it, as in the Constitution of India. Article 19 (2) is described. He said that in many decisions of the Supreme Court of India, this principle has been upheld many times.
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