In a virtual meeting with Twitter officials, the uniongovernment of India has expressed "strong displeasure" on Wednesdayregarding non-compliance of order to withhold some farmer's protest accounts onthe micro-blogging platform.
The union government during the virtual meet said, "spreadingmisinformation using incendiary and baseless hashtag referring to 'farmergenocide' when such irresponsible content can provoke and inflame situation isneither journalistic freedom nor freedom of expression as envisaged underIndian Constitution's Article 19".
The statement by the government further added, "Twitter,as a business entity working in India, must also respect the Indian laws anddemocratic institutions. Twitter is free to formulate its own rules andguidelines, like any other business entity does, but Indian laws which areenacted by the Parliament of India must be followed irrespective of Twitter'sown rules and guidelines."
"Misuse of Twitter's platform for execution of suchcampaigns designed to create disharmony and unrest in India is unacceptable andTwitter must take strong action against such well-coordinated campaigns againstIndia, through compliance with the applicable law of the land," it added.
The centre on Monday had asked Twitter to block nearly1200 Twitter accounts on the claims of misinformation regarding the protest offarmers. The union government had said that these accounts were backed byPakistan and secessionist elements.
The Twitter in its blog post said, "We informedMeitY of our enforcement actions today, February 10, 2021. We will continue tomaintain dialogue with the Indian government and respectfully engage with them."