GOI-Twitter Standoff: Govt To Meet Twitter Officials Amid Disagreement Over Content On Farmers' Protest

GOI-Twitter Standoff: Since the 26 January debacle, which witnessed violent protests in the heart of the national capital after Farmers' Tractor rally took an ugly turn, the government of India has put forward multiple requests to take down several accounts based on the content used on the social media platform.

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It is learned that the Secretary for Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) will meet Twitter India officials on Wednesday. Sources confirmed ABP Live that the meeting will be held between Ajay Sawhney, Secretary MeitY, and Twitter officials on Wednesday evening at 7.30 PM amid the standoff on taking down accounts using a certain kind of hashtag and content. It is reported that Ajay Sawhney will meet Twitter officials from the Global Public Policy team.

Since the 26 January debacle, which witnessed violent protests in the heart of the national capital after Farmers' Tractor rally took an ugly turn, the government of India has put forward multiple requests to take down several accounts based on the content used on the social media platform.

While initially, out of the 257 handles using the hashtag having content stating PM Modi starting genocide against farmers were suspended as per government's request. Later out of the 257 handles, only 126 accounts were deactivated while others were restored by Twitter. The IT Ministry in further notices asked 1,178 handles to be deactivated based on the misinformation content. While this time around 583 accounts were deactivated.

The company in an update via a blog on Wednesday informed that its efforts to enforce rules and defend its India's principle will continue, however, the accounts deactivated will be available outside of India.