Microblogging site Twitter has made a big statement. The Karnataka High Court on Monday heard the petition of Twitter in which Twitter had reached the court against the orders of the Central Government to block certain accounts, URLs and tweets. Twitter had challenged the government’s order for violating freedom of expression and removing the tweet. On September 1, a 101-page statement was filed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on this petition by Twitter.
Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Twitter in the court, said that Twitter is following all the rules from the government in India. He further said that the government orders Twitter to block or delete the account or tweet without assigning any reason and without informing the user, which affects its business in India. He said that the accounts of many big personalities are on Twitter.
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Referring to the farmers’ agitation in Delhi, Arvind Datar said that the news going on in the media was also asked to be blocked on Twitter. “Why was Twitter asked to block accounts sharing the same news when TV and print media are publishing news”, he said. Datar told the court that before issuing such orders to the government, Twitter should have been issued notice and their side should also be heard.
Datar said that Twitter itself flags the offending tweet and blocks the account if needed. He said 50-60 percent of the tweets that the government had asked to be “blocked” are “innocuous”. The next hearing of the case is likely to take place on October 17.
Let us tell you that in July, Twitter had moved to the Karnataka High Court challenging the order given by the central government. The Economic Times wrote on Twitter’s affidavit that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had ordered the blocking of 1,474 accounts, 256 URLs, 175 tweets and one hashtag from the social media platform between February 2, 2021 and February 28, 2022.