Content blocking orders by Centre to Twitter soar 1,991% between 2014 and 2020

There has been an increase of 1,991 per cent in requests by the Centre to Twitter to take down contents from their platforms under Section 69 (A) of the Information Technology Act between 2014 and 2022.

As per the data shared in the Lok Sabha by former Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre, the government ordered social media companies to take down 9,849 links from their platforms in 2020, compared to 471 such requests made in 2014.

The government directed Twitter to block 500, 633, 1,385, 2,799, 3,635 number of accounts/URLs during the years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

The latest spat between the Union Government of India and Twitter also revolves around topics of freedom of speech on the internet. The spat took a legal turn after Twitter moved the Karnataka High Court against the takedown order issued by the Centre, claiming that the content blocking orders from the IT Ministry do not pass "the test of the grounds provided under Section 69A of the IT Act".

Also Read — What you need to know about the latest Centre vs Twitter spat

Twitter alleged in its writ petition that multiple accounts and content included in the blocking orders are "overbroad and arbitrary", fail to provide notice to the "originators" of the content, and are "disproportionate" in several cases.

The social media platform alleged in the court petition that several blocking orders that were issued to Twitter only "cite" the grounds of Section 69A but fail to demonstrate how the content falls within those grounds or how the said content is "violative" of Section 69A, the sources told PTI.

According to the writ petition, account-level blocking is a "principally disproportionate measure" and "violates rights of users under the constitution, especially when the reasons stated to block URLs and reasons stated to block an account lack specificity and merely cite grounds under Section 69A".

New Delhi has accused Twitter of deliberately ignoring new IT rules -- which critics fear could be used to silence dissent -- that came into force in May 2021.

The government had issued a notice to Twitter to comply with all its past orders by July 4. The Ministry of Electronics and IT had said that if Twitter failed to meet the deadline, it may lose intermediary status, which means it will be liable for all the comments posted on its platform.