Why Has Twitter Withheld Rana Ayyub's Account?

Journalist Rana Ayyub Twitter account has been withheld. She posted a notice from Twitter on 26 June which informed her that the microblogging site has withheld her account in India under Information Technology Act, 2000.

The notice that Ms Ayyub shared read, "In order to comply with Twitter's obligations under India's local laws, we have withheld the following account in India under the country's Information Technology Act, 2000: the content remains available elsewhere."

"As Twitter strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of the people who use our service, it is our policy to notify account holders if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such law enforcement or government agency) to remove content from their account. We provide notice whether or not the user lives in the country where the request originated," it read.

According to former CEO of Prasar Bharati Shashi Shekhar Vempati, the notice by Twitter could be "either a bug or a delayed reaction to past incidents."

Mr Vempati tweeted, "Noticed many hyperventilating tweets regarding so-called online censorship by Govt of India via Twitter India . It either seems to be a bug or a delayed reaction to past incidents for I too have received such an email from Twitter overnight for the incident last year."

Suggested Reading: Journalist Rana Ayyub Is Banned From Leaving India. Here’s Why

As per Twitter, when one received an account withheld message it means that the microblogging site "was compelled to withhold the entire account specified in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order."

Twitter's policy states that it may be necessary to withhold accounts in case of a "valid and properly scoped request from an authorised entity. "Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s)," according to its policy.

Possible reason behind the withholding of Rana Ayyub's Twitter account 

Journalist Rana Ayyub’s ₹ 1.77 crore were locked up by the Enforcement Directorate or ED.  Why? The authorities accused the journalist of money laundering involving funds she collected citing philanthropic reasons. This happened after the journalist had initiated a fund-raising campaign aiming to provide food and relief to people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was alleged that she had raised Rs 2, 69, 44, 680 on fund raising fundraising platform Ketto. Next, she created a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh from the funds instead of diverting it to the relief work.