New Delhi: Twitter’s recent filings with a third party database reveals that the Union ministry of information and broadcasting directed the social media platform to censor 50 tweets carrying a link to the new BBC documentary about the 2002 Gujarat communal violence citing legal grounds. The ministry cited Rule 16(3) of the IT Rules [PDF] and Section 69(A) of IT Act, 2000 to ask for removal of the posts.
Apart from Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’ Brien’s tweet, similar posts carrying a link to the documentary by activist Kavita Krishnan, journalists Ghazala Wahab and Mitali Saran, American actor John Cusack, and lawyer Prashant Bhushan were also taken down by Twitter in India on the Modi government’s request.
Twitter users who click on a link to these tweets will get a message like this:
However, the tweets are still available to Twitter users abroad or to anyone in India who logs in to the internet via a VPN:
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here