Twitter withheld some tweets after a legal request by the Indian government, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Saturday. These included tweets from a lawmaker, a minister in the state of West Bengal, and a filmmaker.
There is mounting criticism that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government and state authorities let their guard down earlier this year, allowing big religious and political gatherings to take place when cases fell to below 10,000 a day. Requests from the government are reviewed under Twitter's rules and the local law, a spokesperson for Twitter told Reuters.
Earlier this year, the social media giant withheld dozens of accounts on the request of the Indian government on grounds that users were posting misleading content related to farmers' protests near Delhi, aiming to incite violence.
The Indian government must deal with the pandemic and not waste time and resources on people's commentaries on social media aside...the manner on how they handle this crisis will by its own determine whether they managed it or not...Gagging media will NOT...