Name: Twitter faces a political disaster in India, where it's taking heat from both the government and protesters over the suspension of accounts
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Twitter faces a political disaster in India, where it's taking heat from both the government and protesters over the suspension of accounts

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Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowGet a daily selection of our top stories based on your reading preferences.Something is loading.Twitter is looking down the barrel of a political disaster in India.In a published Wednesday, the social media company said it has suspended 500 accounts in India who were "engaging in clear examples of platform manipulation and spam." It also said it blocked "certain terms" from appearing in its trending section, but did not say what these terms were.&nbsp;Twitter also revealed it's been getting messages from India's government.The company said: "Over the course of the last 10 days, Twitter has been served with several separate blocking orders by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act."It continued: "Out of these, two were emergency blocking orders that we temporarily complied with but subsequently restored access to the content in a manner that we believe was consistent with Indian law. After we communicated this to MeitY, we were served with a non-compliance notice."Twitter said it has at least semi-complied with the government's demands. In the blog it said has taken action against "more than 500" of the accounts flagged to it by the MeitY, including suspensions. It did not clarify how many suspensions it upheld as a result of the order.The MeitY tweeted on Wednesday saying Twitter had requested a meeting with the government prior to publishing the blog post. "Upon the request of Twitter seeking a meeting with the Govt., the Secretary IT was to engage with senior management of Twitter. In this light a blog post published prior to this engagement is unusual. Govt. will share its response soon," it said in a .Read more:Last week, Twitter suspended the accounts for numerous high-profile journalists and publications in India, a decision it . The platform received considerable backlash from commentators saying it had assisted the Indian government in quashing freedom of speech.Narendra Modi's government reacted to Twitter restoring the accounts by .The backdrop for the government's demands are over three agricultural reform bills the government passed in September. Although the protests have been going on since August, the Indian government has started cracking down on protesters, and in late January ordered ."The Indian government is no stranger to clamping down on freedom of expression and stifling the free flow of information online. It has implemented and repeatedly restricts citizens' access to the internet during politically significant moments," Samuel Woodhams, a researcher at digital rights organization Top10VPN, told Insider."There's no doubt social media platforms are in a difficult position, particularly given the threat of fines and potential imprisonment if they don't follow the government's orders. However, it remains their duty to do everything in their power to defend freedom of expression online," he added.Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know.Subscribe to push notificationsAn icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.Keep readingIt indicates an expandable section or menu, or sometimes previous / next navigation options.Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.

Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile.Redeem nowGet a daily selection of our top stories based on your reading preferences.Something is loading.Twitter is looking down the barrel of a political disaster in India.In a published Wednesday, the social media company said it has suspended 500 accounts in India who were "engaging in clear examples of platform manipulation and spam." It also said it blocked "certain terms" from appearing in...

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She/her | Senior tech reporter at Insider UK | ihamilton@insider.com // iahamilton@protonmail.com

Isobel Asher Hamilton

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Twitter faces a political disaster in India, where it's taking heat from both the government and protesters over the suspension of accounts

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