New Delhi: The Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) today raised the alarm about “the growing misuse” of the Information Technology Rules, 2021 to shut down social media accounts and platforms. It referred to an order by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to YouTube to take down the channel Bolta Hindustan on April 4, 2024, under Rule 15(2) and called it a “blatant move” of the government. Rule 15(2) entitles the Ministry to direct social media platforms to block content. Google, which owns YouTube, informed Bolta Hindustan that the channel was being removed at the behest of the Ministry. The DUJ said that Google did not provide any reasons for the action to the channel.
“Transparency is of the essence in a democracy. The Ministry as well as Google must immediately provide the grounds for the action against Bolta Hindustan. In law, it is a basic principle that an accused person or entity must be provided the full reasons for any charges against them,” the Delhi Union of Journalists stated. It pointed out that two months ago Bolta Hindustan’s Instagram account had been “arbitrarily” deleted, and demanded that these accounts be restored.
“We note that such shutdowns of social media channels and handles are becoming frequent. On February 27, 2024, the Facebook account of Article19-India had been restricted. On November 27, 2023, YouTube abruptly terminated the channel Media Star World but restored it after protests. In August 2023 the social media handles of Gaon Savera, a news website that reports on rural India, were blocked under instruction from the government,” the Union stated. It also referred to journalist Mandeep Punia’s statement that the action to block his Facebook and X accounts was “probably to stop his extensive coverage of the farmers’ agitation. “Similarly, the website and social media accounts of The Kashmir Walla were withheld in India in August 2023. There are several other instances that smack of arbitrariness,” the journalists’ body stated.
Meanwhile TV Today has challenged the power of intermediaries to remove a platform user’s access to an account after the Instagram account of Harper’s Bazaar India was blocked on a third-party copyright complaint.
“It is evident that the IT Rules, 2021, infringe on both citizens’ and organisations’ basic right to free expression,” the DUJ claimed and regretted that “other forms of intimidation are being used against journalists e.g. BJP leader and senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia has filed on April 5, 2024, a defamation suit in the Delhi High Court against YouTubers Navin Kumar of Article-19, Neelu Vyas of News Launcher, Professor Akhil Swamy, BBI News and comedian Rajeev Nigam.
It further stated that Bhatia was also suing some eight X (Twitter) handles, those of Sandeep Singh, Vijay Yadav, Netaflix, Sunita Jadhav, a parody account of actor Pankaj Tripathi, Dawood Nadaf, Drkhatra and Virus Baba India Wala.
“Bhatia was allegedly roughed up by lawyers at Karkardooma court in Delhi on March 20, 2024, and he demands that all the reports and commentary on the incident be taken down as they are defamatory and damaging to his reputation,” the DUJ claimed and urged “greater tolerance of views and opinions of all shades as long as they do not constitute hate speech or incite violence”.
– global bihari bureau
