Twitter has blocked the account of Rajya Sabha MP and Samajwadi Party leader Chaudhary Sukhram Singh Yadav, MediaNama reported on February 11.
Yadav's account has 244 followers. It has become one of the high-profile accounts blocked by the microblogging site in India amid the ongoing tussle over blocking of some accounts related to farmers’ protest.
The URL of the account (@MPSukhram ) said it has been withheld in response to a legal notice for users accessing it in India. However, users outside the country can see the MP’s tweets normally.
Moneycontrol has reached out to Twitter for a response.
It is not clear yet if Yadav’s account has been withheld on the directives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, for allegedly spreading misinformation about the farmers’ protest.
Twitter had said on February 10 that it had blocked at least 500 such accounts following directives from the Centre.
Yadav told Moneycontrol that his unverified (without blue tick) account, now withheld, was his official account. He said the account has been blocked during the ongoing farmers' protest
“If an MP is not given preference, then what can be said of the common man.” the 69-year-old politician, who has been chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council from 2004 to 2010, said. Yadav has also been minister of state for public works department and parliamentary affairs in Uttar Pradesh.
He said he will write to IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad about this and also raise the issue before the the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
Twitter, on February 10, said that it had not taken any action on many accounts - as directed by the Centre - because it believed it would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law and its own principles of defending freedom of expression.
Twitter's ongoing tussle with the Centre comes in the wake of violence in Delhi on January 26 during a tractor parade of farmers protesting the new farm laws which resulted in the death of one person and injuries to over a hundred people, including police personnel.