Twitter briefly denies access to Ravi Shankar Prasad’s account, gross violation, says Minister
[ad_1]
Twitter denied access to Mr. Prasad’s account for practically 1 hour on alleged violation of U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Social media platform Twitter quickly blocked Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s account on Friday afternoon after receiving a grievance for violation of US copyright regulation.
After his account was unblocked, Mr. Prasad lashed out on the social media platform, accusing it of violating the Information and Technology Act Rules by not giving him prior discover of the motion, and of taking “highhanded and arbitrary” motion in opposition to those that don’t swimsuit its agenda
This comes within the midst of a tussle between the Centre and Twitter over the corporate’s failure to adjust to the brand new IT Act Rules which got here into impact a month in the past.
Mr. Prasad stated his account was blocked for nearly an hour, sharing a screenshot of Twitter’s discover that it had obtained a compliant Digital Millennium Copyright Act discover from a copyright proprietor to take away content material posted to his account, and warned that accruing a number of DMCA strikes could lead on to a suspension of the account.
“Twitter’s actions were in gross violation of Rule 4(8) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 where they failed to provide me any prior notice before denying me access to my own account,” stated the Minister. “It is apparent that my statements calling out the high handedness and arbitrary actions of Twitter, particularly sharing the clips of my interviews to TV channels and its powerful impact, have clearly ruffled its feathers.”
Indicating that Twitter’s motion had been provoked by his sharing a information clip of his interview to a tv channel, he added that no channel or anchor has beforehand made any complaints about copyright infringements with regard to such clips being shared on social media.
“Further, it is now apparent as to why Twitter is refusing to comply with the Intermediary Guidelines because if Twitter does comply, it would be unable to arbitrarily deny access to an individual’s account which does not suit their agenda,” stated Mr. Prasad. “Twitter’s actions indicate that they are not the harbinger of free speech that they claim to be but are only interested in running their own agenda, with the threat that if you do not tow the line they draw, they will arbitrarily remove you from their platform.”
The Minister concluded his Twitter thread by strongly reiterating that “no matter what any platform does they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there shall be no compromise on that.”
The authorities says Twitter has failed to adjust to the Rules, which require the appointment of a Chief Compliance Officer. The Centre has warned that this might trigger the platform to lose middleman standing, which signifies that it could possibly be held chargeable for any content material posted by customers.
Last week, the Uttar Pradesh Police filed an FIR in opposition to Twitter for the circulation of movies associated to an assault in Ghaziabad. Previously, Twitter has additionally refused to take away posts on farmers protests which the federal government objected to, and has tagged posts by some BJP leaders with its “manipulated media” label.
[ad_2]