Twitter bans 43,140 accounts in India for violating norms

Micro blogging site said that it purged 40,982 accounts for child sexual exploitation, and non-consensual nudity and further banned 2,158 accounts for promoting terrorism

PGurus Newsdesk

August 2, 2022

Micro blogging site said that it purged 40,982 accounts for child sexual exploitation, and non-consensual nudity and further banned 2,158 accounts for promoting terrorism

Twitter received 724 grievances in India through its local grievance mechanism

The micro-blogging giant Twitter banned 43,140 accounts of Indian users in June over violation of its guidelines, the microblogging platform said in its July 2022 compliance report. The highest number of complaints — 536 were related to abuse/ harassment and 134 against hateful conduct.

According to the report, Twitter removed 40,982 accounts for child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and similar content, while 2,158 accounts were banned for promoting terrorism. The platform received 724 grievances in India through its local grievance mechanism between May 26, 2022, and June 25, 2022, and the total number of URLs actioned was 122.

Twitter also processed 52 grievances that appealed account suspensions and none were overturned, and all accounts remain suspended, the report said. The social media platform also received two requests related to general questions about Twitter accounts during this reporting period.

All big digital and social media platforms, with more than five million users, are required to publish a monthly compliance report under the new IT Rules 2021. In compliance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, Twitter is required to publish a monthly compliance report which includes the details of complaints from users via the India grievance mechanism and action taken on them, as well as information related to Twitter’s proactive monitoring efforts under the IT Rules.

“A vast majority of all accounts that are suspended for the promotion of terrorism and child sexual exploitation are proactively flagged by a combination of technology and other purpose-built internal proprietary tools,” the company said in the report.

Last month, the micro-blogging website complied with the IT ministry’s notice to comply with the new IT Rules 2021 by the July 4 deadline, or lose its immunity as a social media intermediary under Section 79 of the IT Act.

The government had asked Twitter to act on the content take-down notices sent under Section 69A of the IT Act along with non-compliance notices issued for not taking the content down. In May, the IT ministry issued a similar notice to Twitter, directing it to appoint a resident grievance officer, a resident chief compliance officer, and a nodal contact person.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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