Twitter clarifies why Ravi Shankar Prasad’s account was restricted for access
New Delhi : Twitter issued a clarification on Friday over reports of Ravi Shankar Prasad denied from accessing his social media account for an hour over alleged violation of the US’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act — a move that was immediately slammed by him as being arbitrary and against IT rules.
This was the first time when a Twitter account of a union minister was banned or blocked.
After couple of hours, the social media giant issued a clarification, mentioning that the account access was temporarily restricted due to a DMCA notice only and the referenced tweet has been withheld.
“The Union Minister’s account access was temporarily restricted due to a DMCA notice only and the referenced tweet has been withheld. As per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives,” Twitter Spokesperson said in a clarification.
His account was given access again after an hour.
Meanwhile, Ravi Shankar Prasad lashed out at Twitter on its rival Indian social media platform Koo.
“Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account,” Prasad wrote. He also tweeted on the issue.
The temporary suspension of Mr Prasad’s account comes at a time when Twitter and the Central government are in a tussle over the compliance of new IT rules in India.
