The Parliamentary Panel for IT headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor has directed the Secretariat to seek an explanation from Twitter in writing regarding the locking of the accounts of Minister for IT Ravi Shankar Prasad and Shashi Tharoor. Twitter has been asked to submit within two days the explanation for the event.
In the absence of a satisfactory answer from Twitter, the Committee can summon an official from the company. Recently, Ravi Shankar Prasad had his account locked on Twitter for apparently violating the Copyrights Act in the United States of America.
If the committee does not get a satisfactory reply from Twitter, then the committee can summon the Twitter official.
— ANI (@ANI) June 29, 2021
Twitter has been going through a tough time since the passage of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021. Following its refusal to obey Indian laws, it has lost its intermediary status after which multiple FIRs have been filed against the platform.
Bhopal Cyber Cell registered an FIR against Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari under Section 505 of IT Act after the platform displayed a distorted map of India. Delhi Police Cyber Cell registered a case against Twitter for child pornographic content on their platform.
The Uttar Pradesh police registered a case against Twitter and others for sharing manipulated media on the platform with the intention to incite communal passions.
