Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday alleged that Twitter had denied him access to his own account for almost an hour.
Prasad tweeted, “Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account.”
Prasad said that ‘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.’
Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account. pic.twitter.com/WspPmor9Su
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) June 25, 2021
“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,” the minister concluded.
Prasad shared a screenshot of what appeared to be a notification for Twitter explaining why he was unable to access his account. The note from Twitter read, “Your account has been locked because Twitter received a compliant Digital Millennium Copyright Act (11 DMCA11
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 DMCA notice, Twitter will remove the identified material.”
It added, “Twitter maintains a repeat copyright infringer policy under which repeat infringer accounts will be suspended. Accruing multiple DMCA strikes may lead to suspension of your account. What you can do: To unlock your account, you must review Twitter’s Copyright Policy.”
Prasad, who heads India’s IT ministry has been at the forefront of formulating and implementing the controversial IT rules meant for digital news entities and social media platforms. Twitter had allegedly failed to comply with the IT Rules by 26 May, the deadline issued by the government for compliance.
Twitter has not reacted to Prasad’s allegations on denial of access to his own account.
