Twitter Suspends IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's Account, Later Restores It

According to Prasad, Twitter denied access to his account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA.

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. (File Photo)

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing fued between the Central government and Twitter over the newly formed IT rules, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday alleged that his account on the micro-blogging site was suspended for almost an hour. 

However, an hour later, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader's account was restored.

According to Prasad, Twitter denied access to his account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA.

"Friends! Something highly 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," the politician wrote in his tweet along with screenshots of his locked profile. 

Going further, Prasad even lambasted the social media giant and said that Twitter's action indicate that they are not the harbinger of free speech that they claim to be. 

"Twitter’s actions indicate that they are not the harbinger of free speech that they claim to be but are only interested in running their own agenda, with the threat that if you do not tow the line they draw, they will arbitrarily remove you from their platform," he wrote in another tweet. 

Prasad has been at the forefront of government's drive to bring in more compliance and stricter norms for social media platforms. 

Once again reminding Twitter about the new IT laws, Prasad even said that no matter what any platform does they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there shall be no compromise on that.

Meanwhile, Twitter India has lost its status of intermediary platform in India over non-compliance to the new intermediary guidelines. This means the social media giant now has now lost its legal shield in the country from prosecution over posts.