Advertisement

Ravi Shankar Prasad's Twitter handle blocked, restored an hour later, here's what happened

Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Twitter did not inform him before denying him access to the account, which was in violation of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 

Ravi Shankar Prasad's Twitter handle blocked, restored an hour later, here's what happened File photo

New Delhi: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed that he was denied access to his Twitter handle for almost an hour on grounds "that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA." He said that he was not informed before his account was blocked though his acces was subsequently restored.   

Taking his greivance to social media platform Koo, Ravi Shankar said this action by Twitter is in violation of Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 in which he did not tell them before denying access to the account.

After his account was restored, Ravi Shankar in a thread of tweets, accused the microblogging platform saying "its not a harbringer of free speech". 

"Twitter’s actions indicate that they are not the harbinger of free speech that they claim to be but are only interested in running their own agenda, with the threat that if you do not tow the line they draw, they will arbitrarily remove you from their platform," he wrote.

He said, "Twitter’s actions were in gross violation of Rule 4(8) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 where they failed to provide me any prior notice before denying me access to my own account."

He warned that 'all socia media platforms will have to follow the new IT rules'. "No matter what any platform does they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there shall be no compromise on that.