The Indian government has asked Twitter to take down several tweets, including some by a local lawmaker, Revnath Reddy. These tweets were critical of India’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, as Covid-19 cases again hit a world record.
Twitter has withheld some of the tweets after the legal request by the Indian government, a company spokeswoman told Reuters.
The government cited the Information Technology Act of 2000 when they made their request to remove the criticism.
India has, in the past, used the IT Act to block information in a bid to protect the ‘sovereignty and integrity of India’ and maintain public order, among other things.
India and Twitter were at odds in February when Twitter did not comply with a government order to take down over 1 100 accounts and posts about farmer protests around new agriculture reforms. Twitter later blocked access to the bulk of accounts it was ordered to take down, an IT ministry source told Reuters previously.
‘When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law,’ a Twitter spokeswoman said in an emailed statement on Saturday.
‘If the content violates Twitter’s rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only,’ she said.
Criticism is mounting that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal government and state authorities were not adequately prepared to handle the second wave of Covid-19 infections.
Health experts have said that India became complacent during their winter when the Covid-19 pandemic seemed to be under control.