Hindu Daily Digest - Editor's Pick: Twitter on notice

(The Editor's Pick is a new newsletter from The Hindu that provides a snapshot of the most important stories from today's edition of our newspaper, along with a note from our top editors on why we chose to give prominence to these stories.)

The Centre has issued a notice to Twitter after the microblogging platform reinstated several accounts mentioning a hashtag that the government wanted blocked. Twitter had initially complied with the request and blocked about 150 accounts and 100 tweets that mentioned 'farmer genocide', but later reinstated the content, reportedly saying that it "constituted free speech and was newsworthy."

A government order on January 31 had asked for 257 URLs (for accounts and tweets) and one hashtag to be blocked claiming that they were spreading misinformation about the ongoing farmers protest and could lead to violence. Under this order, Twitter had blocked several accounts, including that of Caravan India, a news magazine. The order cites Section 69A of the IT Act, 2000 which empowers the government to order intermediaries (social media and other platforms, and internet service providers) to block content that it finds a threat to the security of the nation. The Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011, which governs the implementation of the provisions of the IT Act, gives the intermediaries 36 hours to act on such orders. Section 79 (3) of the IT Act also states that intermediaries could lose their safe harbour protections if they fail to act on notices from the government. Section 79 (1) provides intermediaries a 'safe harbour', or protection from being liable for the content that they host.

Twitter choosing to reinstate the accounts in the face of a government notice invites possible penal action, including imprisonment up to 7 years against its functionaries in India. This, along with the larger question of how the government is approaching critical content on social media, is what makes the story important.

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