A major controversy ensued after Twitter on Friday denied Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor access to their accounts, citing copyrights violation as the reason.
The first to be denied access to his account was Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who claimed that Twitter locked him out of his account for almost an hour on the alleged grounds that there was a "violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA"
This was enough for the Union minister, who has in the past called out the social media giant for not abiding by the new IT rules, to launch a renewed attack, terming Twitter's action "arbitrarily".
While the news of Ravi Shankar Prasad being denied access to his account was still settling in, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor echoed the same concern, saying the same happened with him too over a copyright issue.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP, who is also the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, said that he will be seeking an explanation from Twitter India over the brief locking of his and Ravi Shankar Prasad's account.
All that happened
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad denied access to his account
Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday that Twitter denied access to his account for almost an hour on the alleged "ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA."
The microblogging site subsequently allowed him to access the account, he added.
Taking to Indian microblogging platform Koo, Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote, "Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account."
After getting access to his Twitter account, Ravi Shankar Prasad said Twitter’s actions were in gross violation of Rule 4(8) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 "where they failed to provide me any prior notice before denying me access to my own account."
Ravi Shankar Prasad hits out at Twitter
Miffed over being denied access to his account in what he called was a "gross violation" of the IT Rules 2021, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Twitter’s actions "indicate that they are not the harbinger of free speech that they claim to be but are only interested in running their own agenda, with the threat that if you do not tow the line they draw, they will arbitrarily remove you from their platform".
Launching an attack on the microblogging site for not abiding by the social media rules, the Union minister said: "No matter what any platform does they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there shall be no compromise on that."
Twitter accepts restricting Ravi Shankar Prasad's account, says did it due to copyright issues
Hours after Ravi Shankar Prasad said Twitter had barred him from accessing his own account, Twitter confirmed that it did restrict the minister.
In a statement, Twitter said, "We can confirm that the Honourable Minister's account access was temporarily restricted due to a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice only and the referenced tweet has been withheld."
Explaining the rationale for restricting Ravi Shankar Prasad, Twitter said, "Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorised representatives."
Shashi Tharoor also denied access to his account. Twice.
The same thing happened with me too, said Congress leader Shashi Tharoor moments after Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed he was denied access to his Twitter account for almost an hour.
Congress's Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter and said: "Raviji, the same thing just happened to me. Clearly DMCA is getting hyperactive. This tweet has been deleted by @Twitter because its video includes the copyrighted BoneyM song Rasputin."
Shashi Tharoor, who is also the chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, said that he will be seeking an explanation from Twitter India over the brief locking of his and Ravi Shankar Prasad's account.
This didn't end here. Shashi Tharoor's was apparently, just a short while after the above episode, denied access to his account again for sharing a copyrighted video with the tweet he posted to explain the problem.
Terming the action by Twitter a "foolish response" to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA (DCMA) notice, Shashi Tharoor said that the microblogging site could have just disabled the video.
Sony Music complained against Ravi Shankar Prasad to Twitter alleging copyright violation
The complaint alleging a copyright violation that was sent to Twitter against Ravi Shankar Prasad was sent on behalf of Sony Music Entertainment by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
India Today TV has accessed a copy of this compliant. It was sent on May 24, 2021.
This complaint was apparently the reason why Twitter on Friday restricted Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account for nearly an hour citing copyrights issues.
IFPI had approached Twitter on behalf of Sony Music Entertainment over an alleged copyright violation as he reportedly shared AR Rahman's popular number 'Maa Tujhe Salaam'.
Following the notice, Twitter took down Ravi Shankar Prasad's tweet. The communication from IPFI to Twitter was classified as a "DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice". DMCA is a US law on copyrights.
What is DMCA
Both Ravi Shankar Prasad and Shashi Tharoor's Twitter accounts were locked as they violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA (DMCA) that the company adheres to for its own copyright policy.
The DMCA, which Twitter and many other online platforms cite to suspend and ban accounts, is one of the old laws protecting intellectual property and copyright belonging to a person or an organisation.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act “criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works [commonly known as digital rights management or DRM].”
In simpler terms, DMCA is like a go-to law for almost all of the internet as over two decades ago, when the WWW started to take over the world, there was no one framework that could be used to manage copyright on it. The problem was even more acute because of the global and borderless nature of the internet.
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