Twitter obeys Indian govt’s order, restricts accounts

Chennai: Twitter has said that it blocked four accounts in India to comply with a new legal request from the Indian government.

All four accounts, like several others that the Indian government ordered to be blocked in the country earlier this year, had protested New Delhi’s agriculture reforms and some had posted other tweets that criticized Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seven years of governance in India, an analysis by TechCrunch found.

Twitter has told the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) that it is ‘committed to complying’ with all clauses of the intermediary guidelines and asked for a week’s time, officials familiar with the matter reportedly said, days after the government issued an ultimatum to the company.

A Twitter spokesperson said Twitter has been and remains deeply committed to India, and serving the vital public conversation taking place on the service.

“We have assured the Government of India that Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new guidelines, and an overview on our progress has been duly shared. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian Government,” the spokesperson said.