WASHINGTON: Responding to queries on Twitter suspending almost 500 accounts after receiving orders from the Indian authorities, the US reiterated its dedication to supporting democratic values together with freedom of expression.
“What I might say typically, is that all over the world, we’re dedicated to supporting democratic values together with freedom of expression. I believe with regards to Twitter’s insurance policies we must refer you to Twitter itself,” stated US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price, when requested on his feedback on the state of affairs.
This comes after Twitter on Wednesday knowledgeable that it has taken a number of enforcement actions — together with everlasting suspension of over 500 accounts for clear violations of Twitter’s guidelines, in response to the ”authorized requests” from the Indian authorities.
The social media large in an announcement stated, “Separate to our enforcement underneath the Twitter Rules, over the course of the final 10 days, Twitter has been served with a number of separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, underneath Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.”
ALSO READ: Amid full-blown freedom of speech spat with Twitter, govt begins Koo-ing
“We took a variety of enforcement actions — together with everlasting suspension in sure circumstances — towards greater than 500 accounts escalated throughout all Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology orders for clear violations of Twitter’s Rules,” the assertion added.
The firm knowledgeable that they took steps to scale back the visibility of the hashtags containing dangerous content material, which included prohibiting them from trending on Twitter.
This assertion got here amid the ‘Toolkit’ controversy surrounding the continuing farmers’ protest.
The Central authorities on Monday had directed the microblogging platform to take away 1,178 Pakistani-Khalistani accounts spreading misinformation and provocative content material on farmers agitation, sources stated.
