Image Credits: TheIndianExpress
The Parliamentary Standing Committee of IT on Tuesday asked Twitter to explain the grounds on which it temporarily locked profiles of Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.
Sources close to the development said that the parliamentary panel headed by Shashi Tharoor had asked the Lok Sabha Secretariat to seek Twitter’s response in writing on this within 48 hours.
This matter was also reported during the panel’s meeting today for which it had summoned representatives of Facebook and Google. On Saturday, Twitter temporarily locked Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s personal account over an violation of US copyright laws.
In a statement, Twitter said, “We can confirm that the Honourable Minister’s account access was temporarily restricted due to a DMCA notice only and the referenced tweet has been withheld.”
Besides this, on Saturday, Shashi Tharoor too said his account was on two occasions over similar reasons.
In a series of tweets he tweeted that, “As chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, I can state that we will be seeking an explanation from Twitter India for the locking of RS Prasad’s and my accounts, and the rules and procedures they follow while operating in India.”
Raviji, the same thing just happened to me. Clearly DMCA is getting hyperactive. This tweet has been deleted by @Twitter because its video includes the copyrighted BoneyM song"Rasputin": https://t.co/ClgP2OKV1o #DanceIsNotJihad pic.twitter.com/IqQD50WhaU
After process, a/c unlocked. https://t.co/TCeT8aGxV6— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 25, 2021