On January 7, the Delhi High Court issued notices to Twitter Communications and the Union ministry for information technology and electronics, seeking their response to senior advocate Sanjay Hegde바카라s plea for framing of guidelines for Twitter and to restore his account on the micro-blogging website. On October 26, Twitter temporarily suspended Hegde바카라s account as he had put up바카라nearly a year ago바카라a photograph showing shipyard worker August Landmesser as the lone man in a massive crowd in 1936 Germany who refused to offer the Nazi salute to Adolf Hitler. Twitter asked Hegde to remove the image, apparently for violating its rules that prohibit users from sharing 바카라hateful or sensitive바카라 material.
Hegde complied with Twitter바카라s diktat, but his account was restored only to be suspended again within 24 hours. The second offensive tweet was a 2017 one by activist Kavita Krishnan, who had shared a poem by Gorakh Pandey, 바카라Usko phaansi de do바카라, which Hegde 바카라quote tweeted바카라 with the English translation, 바카라Hang Him바카라. Hegde바카라s retweet was apparently mass reported and he was asked to either delete the post or have his account removed permanently. The senior advocate who has been at the forefront of several judicial battles for protection of civil liberties chose the latter, deciding to move the court against Twitter바카라s arbitrary and opaque policies. Hegde바카라s plea raises a pertinent question: can a citizen바카라s fundamental right to freedom of expression be 바카라at the mercy of a private corporation like Twitter and, more importantly, if the corporation curbs this freedom, then what is its liability?바카라 This assumes greater significance in these times when dissenting with the ruling party on any social media platform바카라Twitter more frequently than others바카라is a sure way of attracting trolls who dish out rape and death threats. Hegde points out that while accounts of such trolls rarely get suspended despite multiple violations, 바카라bona fide citizens raising important questions in a civil manner face a ban바카라. Such selective curbs on free speech against those who question the government바카라s policies has been at play all too often over the past few months.
