Twitter withholds Pakistan government’s account in India for the second time. Read here
- The account was withheld earlier in July as well but had been reactivated and was visible. Today, again the account displayed the message of being withheld in India.
In the second time this year, the Twitter account of the Government of Pakistan has been withheld for users in India on 1 October, 2022. This happened again after the account was withheld in July this year. In June, Twitter in India banned official accounts of Pakistan Embassies in UN, Turkey, Iran and Egypt.
Twitter had reactivated the account for viewing in India after the July deactivation, however, the account got withheld in September again. According to Twitter guidelines, the microblogging site takes such action in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order.
"@GovtofPakistan account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand," is seen while accessing the Twitter handle.
After Twitter withheld the account, the feed of the Pakistan government "@GovtofPakistan" is not visible to Indian users.
Previously, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had blocked 16 YouTube news channels including six Pakistan-based channels for spreading disinformation related to India's national security, foreign relations, and public order.
Twitter said that if it "receives a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time."
Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s)," the social media giant said.
In August this year, India blocked 8 YouTube-based news channels, including one operating from Pakistan and one Facebook account for posting "fake, anti-India content" online.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in a statement said that the action was taken by imposing emergency powers under Information Technology Rules, 2021. The orders for the move were on August 16. The blocked Indian YouTube channels were observed to be using fake and sensational thumbnails, images of news anchors and logos of certain TV news channels to mislead the viewers to believe that the news was authentic.
So far, the central government has blocked over 100 YouTube channels, 4 Facebook pages, 5 Twitter accounts and 3 Instagram accounts for spreading hate contact against India.
Twitter also ‘withheld’ the official Popular Front of India account a day after the central government banned PFI for a period of five years under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act on 29 September.
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Business NewsNewsIndiaTwitter withholds Pakistan government’s account in India for the second time. Read here
First Published:1 Oct 2022, 11:39 AM IST
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