On February 1

, 2021, Twitter temporarily suspended about 250 accounts related to the ongoing farmers’ protests on Delhi’s borders. Among the accounts suspended were those of prominent individuals and organisations and even a digital-print publication. The direction to block these accounts came from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Twitter suspended these accounts under their Country Withheld Content Policy as a response to a legal request from the IT Ministry. Among the accounts suspended were that of Kisan Ekta Morcha, a farm organisation linked to Sanyukt Kisan Morcha — the umbrella group leading the protest — and media outlet Caravan.

However, that same evening, Twitter unblocked the suspended accounts, stating that after scrutiny it found that the content was newsworthy and constituted free speech. So, the accounts cannot be withheld. Soon after, trouble began brewing.

On February 3, the government put Twitter on notice for unblocking the accounts and posts that talked about the protests, stating that the microblogging site was violating the Information Technology Act’s Section 69, which provides for seven-year imprisonment.

On February 8, the government asked Twitter to remove a further 1,178 accounts, stating these were Pakistani accounts tweeting on the farmers’ protests, and that they could cause a threat to public order. Twitter, in response, said that the company had sought a meeting with Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for a formal dialogue on the issue.

However, on February 10, facing possible arrest of its top executives and financial penalty, the American micro-blogging giant stated that it was reimplementing restrictions on some accounts in India which were flagged by the government as inflammatory. Twitter also assured the government that it was taking stock of the content on the handles mentioned in the notice sent by the IT Ministry under Section 69A of the IT Act.

The company stated it has withheld a portion of the accounts just within India. These accounts continue to be available outside the country.

Transparency is the foundation for promoting healthy public conversation.

Following the reports of violence in recent weeks, we're sharing a granular update on our proactive efforts to enforce our rules and defend our principles in India: https://t.co/ry557Nj94U— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 10, 2021

The company also stated in a blogpost: “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.”

In a thread on Twitter Safety, the company stated: “We will continue to advocate for the right of free expression on behalf of the people we serve and are exploring options under Indian law.”

However, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians. We will continue to advocate for the right of free expression on behalf of the people we serve, and are exploring options under Indian law.

— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) February 10, 2021

(Edited by : Abhishek Jha)