Asked to block innocuous posts: Twitter

BENGALURU: Microblogging site Twitter on Monday claimed before the Karnataka High Court it was being asked by the government to block accounts, rather than just a tweet that was deemed improper, because of its political content.

As a platform it was affected by the Centre asking it to take down accounts without issuing notice to the alleged violators. Twitter said. Many of the tweets being asked to be blocked were “innocuous.” The High Court was hearing a petition by Twitter against the Central government’s orders asking it to block some accounts, URLs and tweets.

Twitter had challenged the orders on grounds of violation of freedom of speech and the authorities not issuing notice to the alleged violators before asking the platform to take down content.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had on September 1 filed a 101-page statement of objection to Twitter’s petition.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Twitter online, argued the company was following the rules laid out in the Information Technology Act.

He contended Twitter as a platform was affected by the Centre asking it to take down accounts without issuing notice to the alleged violators.

The Centre was asking for wholesale blocking of accounts which will affect its business, according to him.