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‘Something peculiar happened’: IT minister Prasad alleges Twitter blocked his account for an hour
Ravi Shankar Prasad described Twitter’s action as being in “violation” of the new IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Ethics Code) Rules.
Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleged on Friday that Twitter denied him access to his account for over an hour on account of a “violation,” adding that he was subsequently allowed access to his account.
“Friends, something peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA, and subsequently they allowed me to access the account,” Prasad tweeted, sharing screenshots of Twitter’s message to him of his account being locked, and then unlocked.
The minister described Twitter’s action as being in gross violation of Rule 4(8) of the Information Technology Rules 2021. “Twitter failed to provide me any prior notice before denying access to my own account,” he tweeted.
The IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Ethics Code) Rules, which were announced in February, have led to a faceoff between the social media giant and the Prasad-headed Union ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY).
Prasad further remarked that his statements calling out the “high-handedness and arbitrary actions” of Twitter have “clearly ruffled its feathers.”
“It is now apparent as to why Twitter is refusing to comply with the Intermediary Guidelines, because if it does comply, it would be unable to arbitrarily deny access to an individual’s account which does not suit their agenda,” the IT minister posted in a subsequent tweet.
Twitter’s action indicate that it is not the harbinger of free speech that it claims to be, Prasad said, adding that “no matter what any platform does, they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there will be no compromise on that.”
