Twitter suspends over 500 accounts after Indian government orders

NEW DELHI: Twitter on Wednesday said it has suspended over 500 accounts, and blocked access to several others within India as it partly acceded to a government order to curb spread of misinformation and inflammatory content around farmers’ protests.

Twitter, in a blogpost, said it has not blocked accounts consisting of “news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians” as doing so “would violate their fundamental right to free expression” guaranteed under the country’s law.

The government, however, termed as “unusual” Twitter’s move to publish the blogpost before a slated talks with the IT Secretary on the issue, as sought by the US company.