Twitter closed IT Minister’s account for 1 hour, Ravi Shankar Prasad said that it is a gross violation of rules

New Delhi. Amid its deteriorating relationship with the Indian government, Twitter on Friday temporarily suspended the account of Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad over alleged violations of US copyright law. The minister criticized this move of the American social networking company, calling it arbitrary and a gross violation of IT rules. This is the first case of such a ban on the Twitter account of a Union Minister. It is unclear how the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was violated. But Prasad was unable to access his Twitter account on Friday morning, which could be seen by others. After about an hour the ban on the account was lifted but with a warning that in case of any additional notice against the account, it could be closed again or suspended. Taking a jibe at Twitter, Prasad wrote on another social media platform, Ku, that the comments made by him about Twitter’s autocratic and arbitrary actions clearly showed the microblogging site’s fret. The minister said, “Friends! Today something very unique happened.

Also read: Twitter to IT Minister bluntly, every platform will have to follow Indian law, there will be no compromise

Twitter blocked access to my account for about an hour based on an alleged violation of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and they later granted me access to the account. The IT minister’s Twitter account was blocked at a time when the US-based digital giant is at loggerheads with the Indian government over new social media rules. The government has slammed Twitter for deliberately disobeying and failing to comply with the country’s new IT rules. Due to this the microblogging platform has lost its intermediary status in India. In such a situation, she will be liable for the users posting any illegal content. The minister wrote, “It seems that this apprehension has come to the fore clearly from the tremendous impact of my criticism of Twitter’s autocratic and arbitrary actions and especially the portions of the interviews I shared with TV channels.” He also said that it is now clear why Twitter is refusing to follow the intermediary guidelines as if Twitter follows them, it will not be able to arbitrarily block accounts that go against its agenda. Prasad said Twitter’s move was a gross violation of IT rules as it failed to give notice before the account was suspended. “Twitter’s actions show that it is not a harbinger of freedom of expression as it claims, but only wants to pursue its agenda with the threat that if it doesn’t follow it, it will arbitrarily remove you from its platform,” he said. method will be removed. The minister once again clarified that social media platforms will have to fully comply with the new IT rules and cautioned that no compromise will be made on these rules. The new IT rules clearly specify that whenever any material is shared on social media that is not the user’s own, the intermediary must ensure that the content is removed or accessed before it is blocked. Will notify the user explaining the reason for the action to be taken against the content. In all such cases the social media platform shall give a reasonable opportunity to the user to challenge the action to be taken. Sources in the IT ministry said that Twitter apparently did not comply with this provision of IT rules in Prasad’s case before closing his account. He said it was clear that Twitter was uncomfortable with Prasad’s comments about non-compliance of IT rules and hence took this action today. Sources also said that the matter that needs to be discussed in this matter is whether the US copyright laws will apply in India or India’s own. He questioned how a multinational platform like Twitter, which claims to be the flag bearer of freedom of expression, could introduce a US law in India to curb the freedom of expression of a senior government minister.