Kangana Ranaut calls for ban on Twitter in India, pens message for PM Modi

Amid the ongoing Twitter row over blocking of accounts, Kangana Ranaut on Thursday conveyed a message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi via her Twitter handle and asserted that he shouldn't 'forgive' the micro-blogging platform.

Giving great warrior Prithviraj Chauhan's reference, Kangana said, "Don't commit the same mistake as he did — forgiveness. No matter how apology they (Twitter) seek, don't forgive them." Kangana also claimed that Twitter 'conspired for a civil war in India' and ended the tweet with a hashtag 'Ban Twitter In India'.

India on Thursday warned social media platforms of strict action for failure to crack down on inflammatory content, saying they have to fully comply with the country's law. Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that while social media platforms have their own self-regulatory mechanism to check and evaluate inflammatory content, that does not mean they will not follow the Indian rules. "This will not work here," he said.

Ram Madhav slams Twitter's 'double standards' over refusal to suspend provocative accounts 

Centre pulls up Twitter again

On Wednesday, the Centre pulled up Twitter over the delay in obeying its order to remove tweets and hashtags related to 'farmer genocide' and Khalistan sympathizers. In a virtual meeting with the company's Vice President Global Public Policy Monique Meche and Vice President Legal Jim Baker, the IT Ministry Secretary asserted that India values freedom and criticism, but it is subject to reasonable restrictions as mentioned in Article 19(2) of the Constitution. 

Expressing strong displeasure at the fact that the company allowed the content with the hashtag referring to 'farmer genocide' to continue despite the Centre's issuance of an emergency order, he conveyed that Twitter had chosen to side with people seeking to provoke disturbance to public order.

Moreover, he called upon Twitter to take strong action against well-coordinated campaigns against India on its platform as elaborated in the toolkit shared by environmental activist Greta Thunberg. As per sources, the Union government made it clear that there cannot be any compromise on blocking 257 objectionable handles. On its part, the Twitter representatives affirmed their commitment to abiding by Indian laws. 

'Should be proud of Koo app': IT Minister names & shames 'genocide trending' Twitter in RS