Amidst the ongoing anti-farm law agitation, the centre has issued a new notice to social media giant Twitter directing it to block 1,178 accounts found to be from Pakistan peddling Khalistani secessionism.
The misuse of the social media platform for spreading anti-India propaganda, provocative content and misinformation has irked the Union government. ANI reported that Twitter is yet to comply with the notice issued by the central government under Section 69A of the IT Act. The government believes that the said Twitter accounts have the potential to cause a threat to public order.
Government tells Twitter to remove 1178 Pakistani-Khalistani accounts spreading misinformation and provocative content around farmers’ protests. Twitter yet to completely comply with orders: Sources pic.twitter.com/YGZLnjxbv3
— ANI (@ANI) February 8, 2021
Quoting a source, News 18 reported, “The accounts ordered blocked are of Khalistani sympathisers, or those backed by Pakistan and operating from foreign territories. Many of the accounts are also automated bots that were used for sharing and amplifying misinformation and provocative contents on farmers protest.” The centre has also warned the microblogging site to comply with its orders or face penalty and jail time up to 7 years for non-compliance.
Indian government blocks 250 Twitter accounts for ‘farmer genocide’ propaganda
The development comes days after the Indian government blocked 257 accounts which were using #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide hashtag and making fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets on January 30. Sources told OpIndia that this was been done on the request of Ministry of Home Affairs and law enforcement agencies to prevent any escalation of law and order in view of the on-going farmer agitation.
Incitement to genocide is a grave threat to public order and therefore the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) ordered for blocking of these Twitter accounts and Tweets under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. This included accounts of actor Sushant Singh and columnist with Congress mouthpiece National Herald Sanjukta Basu.