New Delhi: The Prime Minister's Office wrote to Twitter two months ago, asking that six accounts be blocked. The Twitter handles for these accounts linked themselves to the Prime Minister's Office. One posted a communally-sensitive tweet. The National Security Advisor (NSA) and the Prime Minister's Office then sought legal opinion from its cyber-security experts on whether a request to block accounts would be seen as reasonable and stand up to allegations of government censorship.
Sources say six twitter handles, including @pmoindia_ and @indian_pm, were then blocked, but some have been reactivated recently, possibly because they are not being operated from India.
Sources say that criminal cases will be filed against those operating the accounts for misrepresenting government officials.
The accounts that the Prime Minister's Office is concerned about are not related to the more than 310 websites, blogs and Twitter handles that have been identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs for participating in an online hate campaign directed against Indians from the North East. 28 of the blacklisted accounts have reportedly refused to cooperate. The government is now sending legal notices to Facebook, Twitter and Google, which cite treaties with the US, that would make assistance obligatory.
Early inquiries have found that between August 19 and 20, many accounts were created using fake IDs. Doctored images were used to misrepresent violence against Muslims in Assam and Myanmar. Websites and blogs tried to instigate reactions. Text messages sent to students from the North-East in cities like Pune and Hyderabad, warned of reprisal. Thousands of people working in Bangalore boarded special trains to head home to states like Mizoram and Assam, though many say they will return soon to their places of work or study.
India has said that nearly 40 per cent of the inflammatory material online originated in Pakistan through websites like YEM TV.com and Pakistan.tehreekiinsaaf.kohat. The Indian government has lodged a formal complaint with Pakistan and plans to submit evidence soon to Islamabad in support of its allegation.
India has also asked Saudi Arabia and the US to help identify some accounts being operated from those countries that posted incendiary photos and comments. The Department of Homeland Security in the US has been requested to help trace some users who routed their accounts through proxy servers to escape identification.
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