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

Senior BJP leader Ram Madhav on Thursday criticised the 'arrogant double standards' of micro-blogging site Twitter over its refusal to suspend accounts using provocative and false hashtags on the farmers' stir in India. 

Twitter on Wednesday said it has withheld some of the accounts flagged by the Indian government for blocking "within India only" on 'a legal demand' but has not blocked handles of civil society activists, politicians, and media as "it would violate their fundamental right to free expression" guaranteed under country's law.

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Ram Madhav slammed the social media giant for disobeying the Indian law and refusing to suspend accounts that promote false hashtags like ‘farmers genocide’ and pointed out that many such hashtag accounts were blocked in the United States following an attack on the Capitol Hill last month When the supporters of the then US President Donald Trump breached the Capitol on January 6, his Twitter account was suspended and banned permanently later on.

"Freedom of expression is safe in India but it does not include spreading provocative falsehoods," the BJP leader said in a tweet. 

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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. 

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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. 

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