Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:
(a) whether the Government requested Twitter to suspend any account or reduce visibility;
(b) if so, the details of the number of the accounts suspended so far, year-wise since 2014;
(c) whether the accounts suspended by Twitter were being handled since 2014; and
(d) if so, the details thereof including the reasons for suspension of said accounts?
(a) to (d): Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 empowers Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to block information in any computer resource in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the State, friendly relations with foreign states or public order or for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above. For blocking of information, MeitY follows the due process as specified in the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009.
In line with the objective of the Government to ensure an Open, Safe & Trusted and Accountable Internet for all its users, MeitY issued directions for blocking to Twitter to block URLs including accounts under provision of section 69A of the IT Act, 2000. MeitY does not maintain data regarding period of existence of accounts that were suspended by Twitter. The year-wise Twitter URLs blocked by MeitY is as tabulated below:
Year 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022*
No. of RLs 8 15 194 588 225 1041 2731 2851 1122
*Till June 2022
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