India

Here is the full list of Kashmiri activist accounts and tweets blocked by the govt

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Srinagar: On September 3, There were reports that scores of Kashmiri activists received an email from Twitter’s legal section wherein it was mentioned that Indian government has alleged that there accounts are in violation of Indian law, reported WithKashmir.

The email noted that Twitter Inc. had received official correspondence regarding these accounts.

“The correspondence claims that your account is in violation of Indian law. Please note we may be obliged to take action regarding the content identified in the complaint in the future. Please let us know by replying to this email as soon as possible if you decide to voluntarily remove the content identified on your account,” read the mail.

Over last many years, Twitter has emerged a major platform to express feelings for Kashmiri youth including journalists, politicians. J&K’s former chief minister Omar Abdullah has huge following on Twitter and he most of the times tweets rather than issuing statements, the report added.

On September 5,  Twitter blocked several accounts and withheld dozens of tweets in many others after it received official communication from the Indian government asking it to block accounts and tweets, most of these related to Kashmir, reported the Indian Express, a news agency based in India.

In a letter dated August 24, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asked Twitter to block 19 accounts, most of these with tweets about Kashmir. It additionally mentioned 95 tweets in various handles, also on Kashmir, which it wanted to be blocked. In an earlier communication dated August 16, the government had identified 95 accounts to be blocked, in addition to tweets, Twitter searches and hashtags.

Invoking Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, the ministry wrote to Twitter on August 24 that a request from law enforcement agencies for blocking 115 Twitter handles/ tweets had been received. A committee to examine the requests had met on August 4 and recommended blocking or removal of the tweets or accounts in the “interest of public order as well as for preventing any cognizable offence”.

The Blocking Committee Under Section 69A, IT ACT 2000 held on 04-08-2017 listed 115 links in a list of tweets and accounts they have reported. You can check the list here.

Among the Listed are withkashmir.org, Kashmir Alliance, Kashmir Lobby, The Voice Kashmir among several others.

Some of the tweets that were in a list of withheld tweets mentioned by the blocking committee are:

 

While some of these tweets could be still accessed through these links, some of these links and accounts have already been removed/blocked by twitter with a block notice given on visiting.

Another account which wasn’t accessible, said:

Under the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009, a committee of joint secretaries, from the ministries of IT, law and justice, home affairs, information and broadcasting and the Indian Computer Emergency Response, can decide on any content to be blocked under the IT Act.

The ministry also asked for a compliance report from Twitter.

Responding to a questionnaire sent by The Indian Express, Twitter said it does not comment on individual accounts for security and privacy concerns. The “Country Withheld Policy” of the company states: “Many countries have laws that may apply to tweets and/or Twitter account content…. If we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time.”

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