Twitter lock horns with IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

Social Media giant Twitter today suspended the account of the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications, Ravi Shankar Prasad for almost an hour. Twitter cited a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA (DMCA) as the reason for blocking his account for almost an hour.

New Delhi:SocialMedia giant Twitter today suspended the account of the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications, Ravi Shankar Prasad for almost an hour. Twitter cited a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA (DMCA) as the reason for blocking his account for almost an hour.

However, his account was restored later. Meanwhile, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad added that Twitter's actions were in gross violation of Rule 4 (8) of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, where they failed to provide me with any prior notice before denying me access to my own account.

Twitter and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology are at the loggerheads over the new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. Ravi Shakar Prasad has repeatedly urged Twitter to follow the government of India's rules.

The minister further tweeted 'Twitter’s actions indicate that they are not the harbinger of free speech that they claim to be but are only interested in running their own agenda, with the threat that if you do not tow the line they draw, they will arbitrarily remove you from their platform.' In his last tweet on the issue, Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote, 'No matter what any platform does they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there shall be no compromise on that'.