The Twitter Inc. vs Modi government fight has escalated to a whole new level. The America-based, liberal-friendly microblogging platform had previously invited fire upon itself in India after it de-verified Vice President Venkaiah Naidu’s account, apart from removing the blue ticks from the top five RSS functionaries. Now, in a development, which has shown how the microblogging platform is refusing to comply fully with the Indian IT rules, Union IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was denied access and locked out of his account for over an hour on Friday by the American company.
Twitter claims that the Minister’s account was locked because of an alleged Digital Millennium Copy Act (DMCA) violation by Ravi Shankar Prasad which dates back to 2017. Incidentally, DMCA is an American law – not applicable in India. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, on behalf of Sony Music Entertainment, had flagged a copyright violation complaint about AR Rahman’s ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’ on May 24, 2021. Prasad had reportedly tweeted a URL, which contained the said song, leading to a copyright claim being filed now, a wholesome four years after the “violation”.
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.
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (Modi ka Parivar) (@rsprasad) June 25, 2021
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.
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (Modi ka Parivar) (@rsprasad) June 25, 2021
Twitter did not just deny a sitting Union Minister of the Modi government access to his account. In fact, upon restoration of his account, the platform also threatened Ravi Shankar Prasad, saying, “Twitter maintains a repeat copyright infringer policy under repeat infringer accounts will be suspended. Accruing multiple DMCA strikes may lead to suspension of your account.” Effectively, Ravi Shankar Prasad has been threatened with suspension from the platform.
“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,” the Minister said in a series of posts on Koo – which is where he first announced that the microblogging platform had denied him access to his account.
Prasad added that Twitter’s actions were in gross violation of Rule 4 (8) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, as it failed to provide him with any prior notice before denying him access.
Now that the Union Minister has pointed out very specifically which clauses of the IT rules Twitter has flagrantly acted in defiance of, will the microblogging platform be taught a lesson so harsh that it does not dare insulting Indian laws in the future? Frankly, Twitter has now started behaving obstinately. The Indian government has only been sending letters to Twitter, and posturing in a certain manner to somehow ensure that the platform behaves itself. As it turns out, after initial restraint to such moves, Twitter still resorts to its anti-democratic and intolerant shenanigans.
It is now time to take strict measures against Twitter. To begin with, Twitter can be denied access to Indian markets for some time. Better even, Twitter’s services in India can be slowed down. Twitter executives need to be picked up and jailed for not complying with Indian laws so that the leftists at Twitter’s American headquarters realise that their actions have a direct bearing on the livelihoods of Twitter’s Indian executives.
India must send out a solid, visible and unexpected message to Twitter. The American company thinks that its actions will have no consequences and that it can continue to disrespect Indian laws. It must be remembered that Twitter de-platformed a sitting US President – Donald Trump in January this year. In India too, the microblogging site is sending out feelers that it has the authority to do as it deems fit. Twitter could very well take action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s account soon. Who will then bear responsibility for the international ridicule which will be caused to India?
Twitter can justify its actions using a variety of reasons. Before it gets any more ideas, the platform’s sovereign attitude must be nipped in the bud.