After Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey backed Elon Musk's plan to reinstate former US President Donald Trump's Twitter account, India's Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar also voiced his support and said that deplatforming users violates fundamental rights and should not be done arbitrarily. https://twitter.com/Rajeev_GoI/status/1524213401941004290?s=20&t=dzLWoBlABCWwE4uppnxOKA Indian government's stance against account suspensions Chandrasekhar's views are reflective of the Indian government's stance that permanent suspension of users will not be tolerated. "This is clearly an expression of the government's belief that deplatforming or taking down any elected head of government or senior government official is a no-no, as far as India is concerned. And it's probably also a veiled warning to Twitter or Facebook or anybody not to dream of doing that in India." – Prasanto K Roy, a cyber and tech policy expert, told Economic Times. Back when Twitter de-platformed Donald Trump in early 2021 following the storming of the US Capitol building, Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya called for a review of how internet intermediaries are regulated, saying: “If they can do this to POTUS, they can do this to anyone.” Soon after this, India introduced the Information Technology (IT) Rules, 2021, which provides strong redressal options for users who have had their accounts suspended. More recently, in an affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said: “Platforms must respect the fundamental rights of the citizens and should not take down the account itself… taking down the whole information or…
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Deplatforming users violates fundamental rights: Rajeev Chandrasekhar
His views echo the government’s stance on account suspensions.
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