50-60 per cent of tweets asked by govt to be blocked are "innocuous": Twitter to Karnataka HC
Bengaluru, Sep 26: Microblogging site Twitter on Monday claimed before the Karnataka High Court it was being asked by the government to block accounts, rather than just a tweet that was deemed improper, because of its political content.
As a platform it was affected by the Centre asking it to take down accounts without issuing notice to the alleged violators, Twitter said.
Many of the tweets being asked to be blocked were "innocuous."
The High Court was hearing a petition by Twitter against the Central government's orders asking it to block some accounts, URLs and tweets.
Twitter had challenged the orders on grounds of violation of freedom of speech and the authorities not issuing notice to the alleged violators before asking the platform to take down content.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had on September 1 filed a 101-page statement of objection to Twitter's petition.
Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Twitter online, argued the company was following the rules laid out in the Information Technology Act.
He contended Twitter as a platform was affected by the Centre asking it to take down accounts without issuing notice to the alleged violators.
The Centre was asking for wholesale blocking of accounts which will affect its business, according to him.
He said several prominent persons have accounts on Twitter.
Another contention Datar raised was that instead of blocking the tweet that was deemed improper, it was being told to block the account itself because of political content.
He cited the example of farmers' protest in Delhi against the earlier contentious farm laws and claimed content that was telecast in the news media was asked to be blocked on the microblogging site.
"During the farmers' protest I was told to block accounts. TV and print media are reporting. Why ask me to block accounts," he argued.
Datar cited the Supreme Court in the 'Shreya Singhal' case where the IT Act Blocking Rules were upheld and said it was mandatory for notice to be issued even to intermediaries like Twitter and hear them before blocking orders are passed.
Therefore, he claimed that all blocking orders issued by the MeitY were against the SC judgement and the IT Act Blocking Rules 6 and 8.
The senior advocate presented the example of a particular blocking order in which Twitter was told to block 1,178 accounts.
The government did not inform them (account holders) and Twitter was also not allowed to inform them of the action.
Datar argued that requirements of Section 69A of the IT Act were not followed. He cited the example of one Tweet which the government ordered to be removed.
He contended that Twitter itself blocks tweets which it considers wrong. Tweets promoting "Khalistan" are blocked by Twitter.
However, 50 to 60 per cent of tweets that are asked by the government to be blocked are "innocuous", he added.
Datar said Twitter accepts that there are tweets which are not acceptable and it routinely removed them. Even in government orders there were tweets that were justifiable to be blocked. All that Twitter was seeking was following procedure and issuing notices before blocking tweets.
It was also stressed that blocking the account instead of the individual tweets was the cause of concern.
A Delhi High Court judgement was cited in which the owner of a blocked account approached the court. The Centre was also made a party which had argued that blocking the entire account was wrong.
The HC had given a judgement that Twitter cannot suspend an entire account unless a majority of the tweets from that account is unlawful.
The High Court adjourned the hearing to October 17.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
