On Monday, Twitter’s antics continues, as it temporarily removed the blue verified badge from the handle of Union Minister of State, Rajeev Chandrasekhar. This badge lets people know that an account on the social media platform is genuine and verified. This incident caused controversy and curiosity among the citizens only for them to realize that it was for a very vague reason.
MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, was recently appointed as Minister of State in the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and Minister of State in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in Narendra Modi’s new Union Cabinet.
Twitter’s clarification, stated that as Chandrashekhar had changed his handle’s name, the blue verified badge was temporarily removed. However, the chances that the removal of the blue badge followed by the restoration was due to more mundane reasons, are high.
Union Minister Chandrasekhar has been tweeting under the username @Rajeev_mp through his verified handle. However, days after his appointment as a Union Minister, he changed his username to @Rajeev_GoI and this is what triggered the removal of his verified badge. Twitter has a policy of removing the verified badge in case of a change in the username.
Controversy rolled as Chandrashekar’s episode comes at times when the social media giant Twitter seems to be at loggerheads over the new norms. Since Twitter’s intermediary status has been lost in the country under India’s new IT norms, the social media platform has been doing everything in its power to delay the implementation of the new rules for intermediaries. In fact, even former Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was locked out of his account without any prior information.
As reported by Times now, Reports show that the social media giant has informed that it has suspended 22,564 accounts for ‘child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity’ and ‘promotion of terrorism’, Delhi Police have registered a case against Twitter on a complaint by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for allegedly allowing access to child pornographic videos and links on the platform.
“Acting on a complaint received from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights regarding the availability of child sexual abuse and child pornographic material on Twitter in the form of various accounts and links, an FIR under relevant sections of IPC, IT Act and POCSO Act has been registered by the Cyber Crime Unit, and investigation has been taken up”, Delhi Police Public Relations Officer Chinmoy Biswal had said.
After WhatsApp sued the government over the new digital IT rules, microblogging platform Twitter had expressed concerns over the potential threat to freedom of expression. Raising apprehension about the requirement of making an individual (the compliance officer) criminally liable for content on the platform, Twitter requested the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to consider a minimum 3-month extension to implement the new social media rules. The government also highlighted that while Twitter claims to be committed to the people of India, it chose to show the geo-location of certain locations in the Union Territory of Ladakh as part of the People’s Republic of China at a time when India and China were engaged in the peaceful resolution of border-related issues through bilateral dialogue. Even after repeated reminders, Twitter took several days to rectify this according to reports by business today.
While Chandrashekhar’s verified badge was restored shortly, MeitY in strong words, suggested that Twitter’s beating-around-the-bush needs to stop and that it should comply with the laws of the land. It’s high time Twitter should realize that it is in no position to fight a battle against the Modi government, and that it would be in its best interest to follow the directions of India’s new IT Minister. Twitter is merely a social media platform and it should have no locus in dictating India’s legal policy framework.