Twitter Removes 54K Accounts In India In September

Twitter removes 54K accounts in India, receives 157 complaints

SUMMARY

Twitter also actioned 134 URLs, most of which were related to IP-related infringements

Most complaints were registered about abuse and harassment, with complaints also made against IP infringements, hateful conduct, sensitive adult content and impersonation

Twitter also said that it banned 54,123 accounts in the 30-day reporting period

Microblogging site Twitter received only 157 complaints in India between August 26, 2022, and September 25, 2022. The 30-day period registered the least amount of grievances in India this year, per its Transparency Report.

In the preceding 30-day period, the microblogging site received 1,088 complaints. The number of complaints has dropped by 85% month-on-month (MoM).

At the same time, Twitter also actioned 134 URLs, most of which were related to IP-related infringements.

Apart from the complaints, Twitter processed 43 grievances with appeals for account suspensions for various reasons. It also received 12 requests related to general questions about Twitter accounts in the month.

As has been the trend for a long time, 78 complaints were registered against abuse and harassment. Further, Twitter recorded 34 IP-related infringement complaints while hateful conduct was reported 27 times. Sensitive adult content was reported 17 times and there was one reported incident of impersonation as well.

Twitter also said that it has removed 54,123 accounts in the 30-day reporting period. Of this, 52,141 were banned for promoting child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity and other similar content. Twitter removed another 1,982 accounts for promoting terrorism.

Per Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, social media platforms with more than 5 Mn users in India need to publish monthly compliance reports. Along with Twitter, Meta and Google also publish monthly compliance reports.

On a related note, Musk also announced Twitter will form a ‘content moderation council’, though there have been no changes in the social network’s content moderation policy.

The microblogging site has been at loggerheads with the Indian government on multiple occasions over content moderation. This July, Twitter took the government to court over some content takedown orders.

Twitter has made headlines recently as the world’s richest person Elon Musk completed the acquisition of the social media network for $44 Bn last Friday (October 28), taking it private for $54.20 per share.

Following the acquisitions, many of Twitter’s top brass were fired, including CEO Parag Agrawal and legal head Vijaya Gadde.