The Indian minister of communications, electronics and information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has reportedly declined a meeting with a vice president of Global Public Policy for Twitter after the social media giant did not respond to any of India's requests to remove accounts allegedly related to farmer rallies recently held in New Delhi, government sources told Sputnik
NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th February, 2021) The Indian minister of communications, electronics and information technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, has reportedly declined a meeting with a vice president of Global Public Policy for Twitter after the social media giant did not respond to any of India's requests to remove accounts allegedly related to farmer rallies recently held in New Delhi, government sources told Sputnik.
On Monday, India demanded that Twitter removed 1,178 accounts over their link to the January 26 protests and to the Khalistan separatist movement. Last week, sources told Sputnik that security measures had been stepped up at government and diplomatic buildings in New Delhi in light of intelligence suggesting that the Khalistan movement might be behind the violence during the farmer rallies.
According to the Indian CNBC-TV18 broadcaster, citing government sources, the secretary for the Ministry of Electronics and IT will likely attend the video conference, which is expected to be held sometime this week.
"Twitter is likely to seek protection from any coercive action against the company and employees. It is likely to convey its internal policy on the implementation of valid government orders for blocking content and accounts," the sources said, as cited by the media outlet.
They added that New Delhi had also warned of a 7-year jail term in case of non-compliance with directives to block the red-flagged account.
Twitter has sought a meeting with Prasad over its employees' safety concerns, according to the sources.
Meanwhile, a number of senior Indian officials, including the IT minister, have joined Koo, the Indian version of Twitter.
