Twitter has blocked local access to four accounts in India, including one belonging to Canadian-Punjabi singer Jazzy B, NDTV reported on Monday. Jazzy B has frequently tweeted in support of farmers protesting against the Centre’s agriculture laws and had joined them on Delhi borders in December.

The accounts were “geo-restricted” after a legal demand from the Union government on Sunday. Geo-restricted means that the accounts can still be accessed from outside the country. The other three accounts that were blocked are of hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion, youth organisation California Sikh Youth Alliance, and a user with the id @Tarande61695394.

Technology news website Techcrunch said that all the four accounts had posted content against the Centre’s farm laws and some had criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s seven years of governance.

Screenshot of singer Jazzy B's account

In a statement, the social media platform said that the company reviews an account under both the Twitter rules and the local law after it gets a valid legal request. “If the content violates Twitter’s rules the content will be removed from the service,” the statement said. “If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only.”

Twitter also said that it notifies the users directly so that they know that the company has received a legal order pertaining to the account. “We notify the user(s) by sending a message to the email address associated with the account(s), if available,” the statement added.

This is not the first time Twitter has blocked accounts at the request of the government. In April, 52 tweets were taken down from the social media platform following the government’s orders. The Centre claimed they were spreading fake news, but the majority of these tweets were critical of its handling of the health crisis as the second wave in India led to states grappling with shortages of hospital beds, oxygen, medicines and vaccines.

This development also comes at a time when tension has been brewing between Twitter and the Modi government over compliance with the new information technology rules. On June 5, the Centre had sent a final notice to Twitter to comply with the rules. It had asked the social media giant to appoint India-based officers, warning that failure to do so will lead to “unintended consequences”.

Reports suggest that Twitter has sought more time to comply with the rules, citing the coronavirus pandemic.

The new rules were issued on February 25 to regulate social media companies, streaming and digital news content. The rules virtually bring these platforms, for the first time, under the ambit of government supervision.

Among other things, the “Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021” regulations mandated that social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Signal and Facebook will now have to give details about the origin of a tweet or a message on being asked by either a court or a government authority. The regulation also requires social media companies to set up a three-tier grievance redressal framework.

Twitter had said it was concerned about the “potential threat” to freedom of expression as India’s new social media rules came into effect. The company had added that it will “strive to comply with applicable law” in India, but will be strictly guided by the principals of transparency.