Activists and individuals who support the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act-National Register of Citizens-National Population Register protests said they got an email from Twitter Legal informing them that the micro-blogging giant has received a request that certain content be taken out.
One such activist, S Q Masood, claimed that Twitter informed him that they received a legal request asking them to remove a tweet posted from his account. The tweet in question is a video clip which purportedly shows Joint Commissioner of Police Avinash Mohanty disembarking from his official vehicle, pulling out a lathi, and using mild force against individuals on January 10 at the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s massive anti-CAA-NRC-NPR Tiranga Rally.
Mr Masood shared the email from Twitter Legal with The Hindu . An excerpt of the email, which he received on February 17, reads thus: “As Twitter strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorised entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account.” The email specified that no action has been taken on the content which has been reported as Twitter believes in ‘defending and respecting the voice’ of its users.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr Masood said, “The video clip went viral. I have not posted anything objectionable or hateful and reporting the tweet to Twitter is strange.”
Another Twitter user Mohammed Faheem, also vocal against the CAA-NRC-NPR combine, claimed to have received a similar email from Twitter Legal. While, in his case, no specific tweet has been mentioned as reported, but it is his handle which ‘violates the law(s) of India’.
Like Mr Masood, Mr Faheem too expressed surprise at the email. “Twitter did not take action against my handle and it is surprising for the authorities to even suggest that I have violated any law,” he said. He has tweeted a screenshot of the email.
A third recipient Syed Abdahu Kashaf too received a similar email. “I posted a video appealing people to join the anti- CAA-NRC- NPR Million March in Hyderabad and dismissed the rumours of permission getting cancelled. The video got seven lakh views on Twitter and hence it was reported,” he claimed and added that the video has been ‘deleted’.
