Twitter blocks 1,122 URLs in 2022 on MeitY's orders

Representative image.

Based on blocking orders given by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Twitter has blocked 1,122 URLs in 2022 till June, data provided by the ministry shows.

Minister of State for MeitY Rajeev Chandrasekhar, in his answer to a question in the Lok Sabha, did not specify what these URLs are. However, as seen before, these URLS can be either accounts or tweets.

He further said that MeitY does not maintain specific data on accounts that were suspended by Twitter.

These numbers also come at a time when Twitter has gone to court against the Indian government challenging several of such blocking orders issued by the ministry under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act 2020.

Meanwhile, data provided by Chandrasekhar in Lok Sabha also shows that there has been a major uptick in the number of content that has been blocked by Twitter (based on orders from the ministry) from 2019 onwards.

While in 2018, Twitter blocked 225 URLS, in 2019 the number jumped 362 percent to 1,041. In the subsequent year, the number again increased 162 percent to 2,731. Last year, Twitter blocked 2,851 URLs based on MeitY's orders.

These figures also gain importance at a time when the Indian government has been accused of stifling freedom of expression and press.

Last week, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur informed that the government has issued instructions for blocking 78 YouTube-based news channels and social media accounts from public access during 2021 and 2022 for violating Section 69A of the IT Act.

Under this section, the Union government, represented by MeitY, or any other specially authorised official, can issue blocking orders to platforms like Twitter on grounds such as the interest of the sovereignty and security of the state and so on.

In its petition at the Karnataka HC, Twitter has flagged the arbitrary usage of Section 69A by the ministry in seeking account-level blocking without giving proper justification for such actions.