lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 18, 2019 00:54 IST

Twitter has started taking down tweets of politicians like Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, union minister Giriraj Singh, Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya, among others, as they violate the model code of conduct in force during the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

According to an Election Commission (EC) official, the EC had directed the microblogging platform to take down some tweets that do not conform to the model code. “Twitter has informed us that action has been taken,” the official said.

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Two tweets dated April 5 have been withheld in response to legal demands as per Adityanath’s Twitter timeline. Adityanath’s tweets referred to the Muslim league as a “green virus”.

Media reports suggest a total of 34 tweets from 31 handles have been withheld. The action comes days after the EC drew flak from the Supreme Court for failing to rein in politicians who had been making controversial statements. Neither EC nor Twitter verified this independently.

In March, Facebook, Twitter and Google had agreed to create a high priority dedicated reporting mechanism for the EC and appoint dedicated teams during the general elections for taking expeditious action on any reported violation as per the voluntary code of ethics.

On Wednesday, Twitter said it does not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.

“For background context, Twitter has a dedicated process for legal requests and we publish this data twice-yearly in the Twitter Transparency Report. We also publish each request — including others that may come in from official organisations with legal authority like the EIC — to the Lumen Database for purposes of clear, public transparency,” said a Twitter spokesperson in an emailed statement.