Twitter has blocked Canadian-Punjabi singer Jazzy B’s account along with three other handles In India following a legal demand from the government of India. All the four accounts had posted material critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government or in protest against the farm laws, according to tech website, TechCrunch. The accounts have been ‘geo-restricted’, which means they can still be accessed from IP addresses outside the country.
“When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law. If the content violates Twitter’s rules the content will be removed from the service. 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 said in its statement.
“In all cases, we notify the account holder directly so they’re aware that we’ve 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.
Jazzy B took to his official Instagram handle and confirmed the report. Sharing a screenshot of the ‘account withheld’ page, he wrote, “I will always stand for the rights of my people #kisanmajdooriktazindabad #neverforget1984 #raiseyourvoice (sic).” In a following Insta post, he added, “Waheguru ji I don’t fear physical death, but when my conscience dies , that is real death #neverforget1984 #kisanmajdooriktazindabad (sic).”
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Before Jazzy B, several other Twitter accounts were blocked or withheld for tweeting on the farmers’ protests. In February 2021, around 250 accounts were blocked for several hours following a request from the government.
