Microblogging and social networking site Twitter has taken down 50 tweets from its platform in the past month on the request of the Indian government, reports The Indian Express. The government requested the removal of the tweets as they were found to be spreading misinformation and causing public panic during the second wave of pandemic across the country, reports PTI.
Among the users whose tweets have been removed are minister of West Bengal named Moloy Ghatak, a filmmaker named Avinash Das and Revnath Reddy, who is a lawmaker, according to a Reuters report. The tweets have been withheld in India, which means that users in India will not be able to access those tweets.
Ahead of the decision to withold access to the tweets, a Twitter spokesperson told PTI that content is scrutinised after receiving legal requests for its removal. “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,” the spokesperson said.
The development comes at a time when India is registering a record number of coronavirus infections daily. India recorded more than 3,40,000 cases on Saturday with more than 2,600 fatalities caused due to the virus. Several states across India are also reportin shortage of oxygen and medicines.
As per reports, a number of posts were flagged by the government of India in three social networking sites namely Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and few other websites.
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In a similar case, the government had sent a list of 257 accounts to Twitter for removal during the farmers protest in New Delhi.
