19k Social Media Accounts Blocked In Last 7 Years On Requests Of Designated Nodal Officers: IT Min Rajeev Chandrasekhar

NEW DELHI: The Government of India has asked social media platforms to block 19,272 accounts and URLs in the last seven years.

The latest batch of revelations from the Centre comes in the form of a reply in Lok Sabha by Rajeev Chandrashekhar, Minister of State for Information and Technology.

According to its response, the government stated that it had directed the blocking of 471, 500, 633, 1385, 2799, 3635, and 9849 Accounts/URLs for the years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively, under the terms of Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.

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While the government supplied statistics on the overall number of accounts and URLs blocked, it only said that the orders were based on the requests of designated nodal officers of the ministries and states.

Mohammad Faizal PP, a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha, inquired particularly why Twitter accounts of organisations such as The Caravan and Kisan Ekta Morcha were blocked in February of this year.

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“All accounts/URLs blocked by the government are based on requests received from the concerned designated Nodal Officers of the Ministries/States, on specified grounds, and in accordance with the due process outlined in the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Public Access to Information) Rules, 2009, notified under section 69A of the IT Act. In all such cases, the Ministry follows due process “The ministry responded in its Lok Sabha reply.

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