Twitter globally took down tweets from Indian users in response to an order from the Punjab & Haryana High Court issued in February, according to information from the social media platform provided to Saurav Das, a transparency activist and journalist whose posts were removed from the platform recently. The Hindu has seen a copy of the notice, sent to Mr. Das after he filed a complaint with Twitter under provisions of the IT Rules, 2021.
It is uncommon for Twitter to take down content globally in response to a regional request, especially when the reported content is not illegal in other parts of the world. The Hindu first reported the global takedown of Mr. Das’s tweets on April 8. Only one other instance has been recorded of a global takedown from a regional request for content that didn’t otherwise break Twitter’s own rules, in what the company said was due to a product error. This was in 2017.
The Punjab & Haryana High Court Bench of Justices G.S. Sandhawalia and Harpreet Kaur Jeewan that ordered the takedowns did not mention Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who the removed tweets by Mr. Das quoted. A review of the court orders in the case reveals that the matter is a suo motu contempt proceeding initiated by the court against three individuals. The court ruled that the three individuals were tarnishing its reputation with certain remarks.
