PremiumTharoor, who happens to be the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, stated that he had to face a similar debacle as the IT Minister
Shortly after Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad complained of Twitter blocking his account, Opposition leader Shashi Tharoor claimed that one of his posts was deleted and his account was locked due to the same reason.
Earlier today, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad shared snapshots of notices from Twitter, one of which informed that his handle has been blocked due to violation of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The second notice stated that Prasad's account has been reinstated and further violations of copyrights policy could even lead to permanent suspension.
Hours after this, Tharoor, who happens to be the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, stated that he had to face a similar debacle.
"Raviji, the same thing just happened to me. Clearly DMCA is getting hyperactive. This tweet has been deleted by @Twitter because its video includes the copyrighted BoneyM song "Rasputin"," Tharoor tweeted.
The Congress MP informed that the DMCA complaint was raised by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which was "zealously defending the rights of @sonymusic to "Rasputin"," Tharoor tweeted.
"So I won't blame @Twitter for this action or attribute the motives to them that @rsprasad does, though it wasn't pleasant finding my account locked. Clearly they had no choice but to honour a DMCA takedown notice, however stupid & pointless the request was," he said in another tweet.
"But getting a notice from a UK-based organisation, citing @Twitter's role as a "service provider" under a US law, points to the challenges of @TwitterIndia's operations in India. @rsprasad has pointed to possible violations of Indian regulations while conforming to foreign rules,"Tharoor added. "As Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, I can state that we will be seeking an explanation from @TwitterIndia for the locking of @rsprasad's & my accounts & the rules & procedures they follow while operating in India."
Tharoor's account was unlocked after process, but locked again as the first tweet in his thread of tweets explaining the situation included the copyrighted video. As of now, his account has been reinstated.
"And @Twitter locked me out again because to explain the problem, the first tweet in this thread included the offending copyrighted video. Locking is a foolish response to a DCMA notice; disabling the video (which they've now done) should be enough. @Twitter has a lot to learn," Tharoor stated.
