India is in the top 4 in the list of countries that demanded to block URLs or content on Twitter. From 2018 to 2021 the number of blocked content rose.
Mumbai: As per a report by Indian Express on social media transparency, it is seen that India has the maximum number of legal demands to block content by verified journalists and news organisations on Twitter in the last 6 months. The country was also at the top of the list in the previous reporting period.
This comes amid a legal battle between the Indian government and Twitter. The social media company recently appealed to the Karnataka High Court to overturn certain Indian government orders to remove the content in a lawsuit alleging abuse of power by public officials. Despite a drop in 2018, the number of Twitter URLs blocked by order of the Narendra Modi government has steadily increased since 2014, according to data released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
A third of the total requests came from India, and the country was in the top four to submit such requests along with Russia, Turkey, and Pakistan. The latest report also notes that India came second in the search for user information and was among the top five countries to issue content blocking orders over the reporting period for all types of users.
Twitter defines these “legal demands” as a combination of court orders and other formal requests to remove content, from both government agencies and attorneys representing individuals.
Twitter has shared, “349 accounts of verified journalists and news outlets located around the world were subject to 326 legal demands, a 103% increase in the number of accounts since the previous reporting period (January-December 2021), this spike is largely attributed to legal demands submitted by India (114), Turkey (78), Russia (55), and Pakistan (48).”
In a petition by twitter in the High court, it was mentioned that, some of the URLs contain political and journalistic content. The blocking of such information is a violation of the freedom of expression guaranteed to the citizens of the platform.
Responding to a question of Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi on Wednesday in Lok Sabha, twitter’s report was shared by union ministry, in which numbers of blocked accounts are clearly mentioned over the years.
From eight in 2014, the number of blocked URLs jumped to 15 in 2015, 194 in 2016 and 588 in 2017, and then dropped to 225 in 2018. But subsequent years saw another increase, with more URLs blocked in 2020 and 2021 – The years after the pandemic and the years that characterized the violence in Delhi and the long-lasting unrest, such as those against the controversial citizenship law and controversial agricultural laws. 1,041 URLs were blocked in 2019 and this number increased to 2,731 in 2020 and 2,851 in 2021.
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