Several Kashmiri Twitter accounts post illegal content, says Twitter
Several Kashmiri Twitter users who are vocal about the Valley's conflict have received an official mail from Twitter's legal department notifying them of the illegality of their content. The emails, coming from "twitter-legal@twitter.com", claim to have received "official correspondence" regarding the nature of the content posted by these users, some of which were separatist in nature. However, there are several ambiguities regarding the emails.
"The correspondence claims that your account is in violation of Indian law. Please note we may be obligated to take action regarding the content identified...Please let us know...if you decide to voluntarily remove the content identified on your account," the emails said.
The emails asked the users in question to "consult legal counsel" about the matter. They invoked Twitter's "Country Withheld Content Policy", and the Lumen Database which collects and analyzes legal complaints requesting removal of online content. One complaint in the Lumen Database by India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology asked Twitter to block 115 handles for "propagating objectionable contents".
"Many countries have laws that may apply to Tweets and/or Twitter account content...if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to reactively withhold access to certain content in a particular country," the emails added.
Interestingly, a few non-Kashmiri Twitter users also received the same email, including Pakistani analyst Sabena Siddiqi. Siddiqi, for instance, was bewildered about how she, being a Pakistani, was subject to "Indian law". However, there was no clarification given by Twitter regarding the "official correspondence" it had received. Twitter also refused to comment on the matter.
