The Twitter account of the former head of Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel, has been "withheld in India in response to a legal demand".
A few days back, an FIR had been lodged against the journalist and activist by the Bengaluru Police over a tweet of his that allegedly instigated and provoked people belonging to minority communities in India to protest along the lines of the anti-racism rallies taking place across the US.
Patel had tweeted a video by a US-based media house showing protesters in Colorado on 31 May and said, "We need protests like these."
The complainant was police inspector Nagaraja DR of the JC Nagar police.
According to Twitter policy, "if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorised entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time".
"Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s)," the microblogging website says.
In case of a message such as one seen on Aakar Patel’s account, Twitter says it means it was “compelled to withhold the entire account specified (eg, @username) in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order.”
Meanwhile, many on Twitter called for the unblocking of Patel's account.
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