The Twitter message that Rana Ayyub posted stated, “We have withheld the following account in India under the country’s Information Technology Act, 2000 in order to comply with Twitter’s duties under India’s local laws.”
New Delhi: In accordance with the Information Technology Act of 2000, Twitter suspended journalist Rana Ayyub’s account in India, according to a notification she issued on her Twitter blog on Sunday.
“Hello Twitter, what precisely is this?” Tweeted Ms. Ayyub as she posted the message on her Twitter account.
Hello @Twitter ,what exactly is this ? pic.twitter.com/26rRzp0eYu
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) June 26, 2022
“As Twitter strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of the people who use our service, it is our policy to notify account holders if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such law enforcement or government agency) to remove content from their account. We provide notice whether or not the user lives in the country where the request originated,” it read.
Martina Navaratolina, a tennis star, responded to Ms. Ayyb’s post by saying, “Who will be the next? just horrible” In her post, she mentioned Twitter and Rana Ayyub.
Shashi Shekhar Vempati, the former CEO of Prasar Bharati, suggested that the Twitter warning might be “either a glitch or a delayed reaction to earlier instances.”
He added, “Noticed many hyperventilating tweets regarding so called online censorship by Govt of India via Twitter India. It either seems to be a bug or a delayed reaction to past incidents for I too have received such an email from Twitter overnight for the incident last year.”
In order to prevent any escalation of the law and order situation during the farmers’ protest, the Ministry of Home Affairs and law enforcement authorities asked that several accounts including Mr. Vempati be withheld last year.
Twitter defines an account withheld message as one where the full specified account has been withheld “in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order,” the microblogging service says.
Rana Ayyub, a journalist for the Washington Post, had her $1.77 million worth of assets confiscated by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering investigation in February.
According to official sources, Ayyub suspected used portions of donations meant for three campaigns, for personal expenses. “She allegedly didn’t utilize donations meant for three campaigns for the right purpose. Parts of donations were allegedly used for personal expenses,” said the Enforcement Directorate official.
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