Tussle intensifies: Twitter, govt at odds over blocking

Twitter on Wednesday said that it complied partially with the government’s requests to block access to accounts, but let others — particularly those by journalists, activists and politics — remain since the directions were “not consistent with Indian law”, prompting the government to express “disappointment” during a meeting with top executives of the social media company later in the day.

Twitter’s blog, which gave details of its actions, said: “…we do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law.” And, it added, “in keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians. To do so, we believe, would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law.”