Twitter blocks Punjabi singer JazzyB, three other accounts on govt request

Microblogging platform Twitter has withheld the accounts of Punjabi singer JazzyB hiphop artist LFresh the Lion and two others in response to a legal demand in India even as it draws flak over delay in complying with the new IT rules in the countryAccording to an information on Lumen database Twitter received legal request from the Indian government on June 6 for actioning four accounts including that of JazzyBRequests received by Twitter for withholding content are published on Lumen database an independent research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online contentUsers checking Jazzy Bs account are shown a message saying account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demandWhen contacted a Twitter spokesperson said when it receives a valid legal request it reviews it under both the Twitter Rules and local lawAlso read Twitter restores blue tick on Vice President Venkaiah Naidus personal accountIf the content violates Twitter Rules the content will be removed from the service If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction but not in violation of the Twitter Rules we may withhold access to the content in India only the spokesperson addedThe spokesperson noted that in all cases it notifies the account holder directly so that theyre aware that the company has received a legal order pertaining to the accountWe notify the users by sending a message to the email address associated with the accounts if available Twitter is committed to the principles of openness transparency details of the requests to withhold content have been published on Lumen the spokesperson saidReports suggest that Jazzy B had frequently tweeted in support of farmers protestsEarlier this year more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers protestsOver the past many months Twitter has been embroiled in a number of issues Twitter had drawn flak after it marked several tweets by ruling BJP leaders on an alleged strategy document of the Opposition to target the government over COVID as containing manipulated media triggering a sharp rebuke from the governmentThe row over Twitters handling of certain messages had recently blown up into allout war of words between the Centre and the social media platformLast week the government issued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to immediately comply with the new IT rules and warned that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT ActTwitter has an estimated 175 crore users in India as per data cited by the government recentlyThe new IT rules for social media companies that came into effect last month mandate large platforms like Facebook and Twitter to undertake greater due diligence and make these digital platforms more accountable and responsible for the content hosted by themThe rules also require significant social media intermediaries providing services primarily in the nature of messaging to enable identification of the first originator of the information that undermines the sovereignty of India the security of the state or public orderThe new IT rules require significant social media intermediaries those with other 50 lakh users to appoint a grievance officer nodal officer and a chief compliance officer These personnel are required to be resident in IndiaUnder the new rules social media companies will have to take down flagged content within 36 hours and remove within 24 hours content that is flagged for nudity pornography etcThe Centre had said the new rules are designed to prevent abuse and misuse of platforms and offer users a robust forum for grievance redressalNoncompliance with the rules would result in these platforms losing their intermediary status that provides them immunity from liabilities over any thirdparty data hosted by them In other words they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints