Tussle between Centre and Twitter continues

The microblogging platform had been asked by the government to take down multiple accounts that were sharing misinformation

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad refused Twitter's request for a meeting even as the microblogging platform claimed that it has blocked 500 accounts of the 1400 handles which the government asked.

The US-based social media company rejected government's order to block some handles, mostly belonging to civil society activists, politicians and media claiming that blocking "accounts would violate their fundamental right to free expression" guaranteed under country's law.

The government had issued a notice to Twitter asking it to block 1400 accounts claiming that they were provoking ongoing farmers protests.

But, in a blog post, Twitter mentioned that it will not block all accounts which the government has instructed it to before a dialogue.

Read | Twitter underlines free speech, caps some flagged accounts

The Centre took to made-in-India micro-blogging website, Koo to respond to Twitter over the ongoing tussle. The Minister's office asked Twitter to approach the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) officials. Now MeitY Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney is likely to lead the talks with the social media giant.

Sawhney will meet Twitter’s Vice President of Global Public Policy through a video conference this week.

"Upon the request of Twitter seeking a meeting with the Govt., the Secretary IT was to engage with senior management of Twitter. In this light a blog post published prior to this engagement is unusual. Govt. will share its response soon,": MeitY shared on Twitter’s Indian rival Koo. Same also tweeted by the Ministry in Twitter handle as well.

The government shared the information on Koo platform, which can be seen as a message to Twitter that India has an alternative ready.

Twitter emphasised that it will continue to advocate freedom of expression of its users and that it is “actively exploring options under Indian law — both for Twitter and for the accounts that have been impacted”.

Seeking to clarify its stance, Twitter said it had taken steps to reduce the visibility of the hashtags containing harmful content that included prohibiting them from trending on Twitter and appearing as recommended Search terms.