Complying with a new legal request by the Indian government, microblogging platform Twitter has now restricted four accounts, including one belonging to Canadian-Punjabi singer Jazzy B, in India.
‘Will always stand for the rights of my people’, reacted the Indian-Canadian singer
Twitter has blocked local access to accounts of Punjabi singer Jazzy B and three others in response to a legal request from the government on Sunday under the Information Technology (IT) Act, according to the Lumen database that collects and analyses complaints and requests for removal of online material.
“@jazzyb’s account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand,” read the message on the singer’s account.
Jazzy B took to his official Instagram handle and confirmed the report. Sharing a screenshot of the ‘account withheld’ page, he wrote, “I will always stand for the rights of my people #kisanmajdooriktazindabad #neverforget1984 #raiseyourvoice (sic).” In a following Insta post, he added, “Waheguru ji I don’t fear physical death, but when my conscience dies , that is real death #neverforget1984 #kisanmajdooriktazindabad (sic).”
In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson told IANS that when it receives a valid legal request, it reviews it under both the Twitter Rules and local law.
“If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. In all cases, we notify the account holder directly so they’re aware that we’ve received a legal order pertaining to the account,” the spokesperson said.
In its Help Center section, Twitter clarifies, “… if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time. Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s).” An official statement from Twitter regarding these suspensions is awaited.
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