Twitter was asked to block multiple accounts and tweets made by advocacy group Freedom House, journalists, politicians, and supporters of farmers’ protests last year. A document filed with the Lumen database showed the requests were sent by the government between January 5, 2021 and December 29, 2021.
Tweets and accounts that were withheld include journalist Rana Ayyub, members belonging to Indian National Congress, and Aam Aadmi Party. The government also requested to block the account of Kisan Ekta Morcha.
According to the document, the government had asked Twitter to block a few tweets from Freedom House which talked about the state of internet freedom in 2020 and noted its sharp decline in India.
Tech giants including Google, Facebook and Twitter file information with Lumen database about weblinks or accounts that they have been asked to block by any entity under applicable laws.
A random check showed that most of the tweets and Twitter accounts that were requested to be blocked were accessible to users.
The microblogging site also withheld many official Pakistan government Twitter accounts. As per reports, it banned official accounts of Pakistan Embassies in UN, Turkey, Egypt and Iran and also withheld the account of Radio Pakistan, a national broadcaster in Pakistan.
Published on
June 28, 2022
