The issue of users being blocked on Twitter isn’t unique to the US. Powerful Indian politicians and governments have indulged in the same
New Delhi: In a victory for freedom of speech, a United States federal judge ruled Wednesday that President Donald Trump cannot block his critics on microblogging platform Twitter.
In a declaratory judgment, judge Naomi Reice Buchwald, maintained that Trump’s Twitter account was a public forum and blocking people who reply to his tweets with differing opinions would constitute viewpoint discrimination, which violates the First Amendment.
Trump’s defence
The counsel for the defendants — President Donald Trump, former White House communications director Hope Hicks, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and White House director of social media Dan Scavino — had contended that the President’s actions were not a violation of First Amendment and that the President’s personal First Amendment interests superseded those of plaintiffs.
However, Buchwald held that no government official — including the president — was above the law.
Indian politicians
This is not a problem unique to US. Powerful Indian politicians too have indulged in such acts, be it from the current NDA or the previous UPA government.
For instance, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj created quite a buzz on Twitter in 2016 by blocking the popular sarcastic account “History of India”, or @RealHistoryPic. Taking note of this, the parody account posted a screenshot of the blocked image with the caption: “Respected @SushmaSwaraj Ma’am please unblock us, we need to mention your work in History of India,” read the caption.
In August 2012, the ministry of telecommunications under the UPA government had asked internet service providers to block 16 Twitter accounts including those of right-wing entities and leaders such as Sangh Parivar, Panchjanya magazine and Dr Pravin Togadia. The accounts of columnist Kanchan Gupta and television journalist Shiv Aroor were also blocked.
According to a report in The Economic Times, the government had also directed Twitter to take down several accounts parodying then prime minister Manmohan Singh.
The BJP, which severely criticized the government at the time, has done the same once it came to power.
In August 2017, the ministry of electronics and information technology sent a letter to Twitter ordering it to block 115 handles. The government, however, received massive flak for this and was accused of attempting to curb free expression and the flow of information about human rights violations in Kashmir.
In another instance in 2017, lawyer Apar Gupta accused Babul Supriyo, minister of state for heavy industries, of blocking him over public criticism. According to Gupta, Supriyo blocked the lawyer after a string of tweets where he claimed the minister required a gender training class.
Though not a powerful politician, even the UIDAI has been scrutinised for blocking Twitter users. However, the body that is in charge of issuing Aadhaar fervently denied this accusation.