Won’t Block Journalists, Activists, Politicians: Twitter To Indian Govt

Despite receiving an order from the Indian Government, Twitter on Wednesday said it will not block accounts that belong to journalists, activists, and politicians in India. It reiterated that blocking them would be in violation of free speech.

Twitter however blocked a few accounts that "don't fall under these categories" after an order by the Indian government.

"Because we do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law, and, in keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of new media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians," Twitter's blog post said. "To do so, we believe, would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law," it said in a blog post.

It said that it had informed Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India (MeitY) about its actions on Wednesday, adding that it would "maintain dialogue" with the Indian government.

Earlier this month, Twitter had blocked over 250 accounts in the country including the Caravan, an investigative news agency, critics of PM Modi and accounts tweeting in support of farmers' protest, after receiving an emergency legal order from India's IT ministry. It however restored the accounts six hours later, saying that the accounts constituted free speech which cannot be violated.

The Indian government in response threatened Twitter with fine and up to seven years in jail for violating its order.

"Separate to our enforcement under the Twitter Rules, over the course of the last 10 days, Twitter has been served with several separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. Out of these, two were emergency blocking orders that we temporarily complied with but subsequently restored access to the content in a manner that we believe was consistent with Indian law. After we communicated this to MeitY, we were served with a non-compliance notice," the company said.

"We will continue to advocate for the right of free expression on behalf of the people we serve. We are exploring options under Indian law — both for Twitter and for the accounts that have been impacted. We remain committed to safeguarding the health of the conversation occurring on Twitter, and strongly believe that the Tweets should flow," it added.

"Safety of our employees is a top priority for us at Twitter. We continue to be engaged with the Government of India from a position of respect and have reached out to the Honourable Minister, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for a formal dialogue. An acknowledgement to the receipt of the non-compliance notice has also been formally communicated," it further said.