Twitter pulls down Revanth Reddy's tweet, others criticizing Centre for mishandling COVID crisis
Mr. Revanth Reddy had tweeted a picture of a mass cremation and said India was reporting over 200,000 new cases daily and that the healthcare system was collapsing.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 25 April 2021 5:03 PM IST
Hyderabad: Complying with the Central government's request, Twitter has removed Malkajgiri MP Anumula Revanth Reddy's post along with 52 others related to COVID-19, a report by technology news website Medianama said.
The majority of these tweets were critical about the way the Central government is handling the second wave of COVID-19 as the country grapples with the breakdown of health infrastructure.
Mr. Revanth Reddy had tweeted a picture of a mass cremation and said India was reporting over 200,000 new cases daily and that the healthcare system was collapsing.
Besides the Telangana MP's post, others whose tweets were removed from the microblogging site include Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, West Bengal minister Moloy Ghatak, ABP News editor Pankaj Jha, actor Vineet Kumar Singh, filmmaker Avinash Das, and former journalist Vinod Kapri.
The Medianama report stated that many of the tweets that were removed related to the shortage of medicines and beds, mass cremations, and gathering of crowds at Kumbh Mela amid the pandemic. These tweets, which have been blocked for users in India, will continue to remain visible outside the country.
The details of the order received by Twitter have been put up on the Lumen database, a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University that collects and analyzes requests to remove material from the web.
"When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both Twitter rules and local law. If the content violates Twitter's rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of Twitter rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only. In all cases, we notify the account holder directly so that they are aware that we have received a legal order pertaining to the account," said a Twitter spokesperson.
Earlier in February, the government had demanded Twitter take down posts during the farmers' protests that carried the hashtag 'ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide'.
