Twitter locks Law & IT Min Ravi Shankar Prasad's account for an hour amid IT rules tussle

In a significant escalation amidst the ongoing tussle over the IT rules, Union IT & Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was denied access to his Twitter account on Friday morning for nearly an hour, until the San Francisco-based micro-blogging itself issued a warning and unlocked the account. In the seemingly automated message that the Minister's team saw on attempting to access his account, Twitter had cited violations based on a United States law over the Union Minister posting clips of his TV interviews criticizing the site for not complying with India's new IT rules which have come into effect since May 26 this year. As per sources, 3 interviews, including one with Republic Media Network, were adjudged by Twitter to be violative of the US law. 

While Ravi Shankar Prasad's account was open for public viewing, Twitter blocked the Union Minister from making any tweets or other activities. 

"Your account has been locked because Twitter received a compliant Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA) Notice for content posted to your Twitter account. Under the DMCA copyright owners can notify Twitter claiming that a user has infringed their copyrighted works. Upon receipt of a valid notice, Twitter will remove the identified material. Twitter maintains a repeat copyright infringer policy under repeat infringer accounts will be suspended. Accruing multiple DMCA strikes may lead to suspension of your account," Twitter's message read. 

Ravi Shankar Prasad's Twitter account locked for an hour

Issuing his first response to the matter, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad pointed out that Twitter's actions were in violation of Rule 4(8) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 where they failed to provide him prior notice before denying access to his own account. RS Prasad highlighted that it now 'apparent why Twitter is refusing to comply' with the new IT rules because if it does, the US-based social media platform would be unable to arbitrarily deny access to an individual’s account 'which does not suit their agenda.'

The action comes right after Twitter was stripped of its legal cover in India following its non-compliance with the new IT rules that the micrblogging site claims that it 'strives' to follow. While the new guidelines came into force on May 26, the social media giant was issued a final compliance notice by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on June 5 as the former was seeking amendments. The Centre had clearly warned Twitter that nonadherence will lead to unintended consequences including Twitter losing exemption from liability as an intermediary.

Under the new IT rules, significant social media intermediaries have been asked to appoint a Nodal Contact Person and a Resident Grievance Officer, in line with India's new Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 guidelines rolled out in February. The IT rules also allow the Government to direct Intermediaries to remove or disable, content that displays partial or full nudity, sexual act, morphed images, etc within 24 hours of the complaint received.