India rebukes Twitter for not fully complying with government order to ban certain accounts
Summary
India rebuked Twitter for not promptly complying with government orders to take down certain content and warned the social media giant that it must follow local laws to operate in the country. Ajay Sawhney, secretary for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, virtually met with Twitters vice president for global public policy, Monique Meche, and deputy general counsel, Jim Baker, on Wednesday. Last week, the social media site temporarily blocked some of the accounts at the governments behest but said it subsequently restored access "in a manner that we believe was consistent with Indian law." Twitter in its blog post explained it took steps to reduce the visibility of hashtags containing harmful content and suspended more than 500 accounts that were engaging in "clear examples of platform manipulation and spam." The IT ministry secretary told Twitter that it is welcomed to do business in India but it must still follow Indian laws irrespective of the social media companys own rules and guidelines, according to the government statement.