Shortly after Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed 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 (DMCA), Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said that he was also ‘locked out’ under the DCMA notice.

“I won’t blame @Twitter for this action or attribute the motives to them that IT Minister does, though it wasn’t pleasant finding my account locked,” Tharoor said in a tweet. He also shared the post featuring a video that allegedly violated DCMA.

“As Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, I can state that we’ll be seeking an explanation from Twitter India for locking of RS Prasad’s and my accounts and rules and procedures they follow while operating in India,” Tharoor said later 

Opposition slams BJP

Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi cited a rule of the IT guidelines in connection with Twitter’s action against Prasad saying, ‘IT Minister please look at the issue rather than political narrative’.

Congress’ Jaiveer Shergill took a jibe at the minister by referring to the farm laws. “Imagine the plight of farmers who have been denied access to their MSP account for a lifetime by Law Ministry via 3 black farm laws!!” he said.

Earlier today, Prasad said that his Twitter account was suspended for an hour. The minister said that ‘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’.

Shortly later, Twitter issued a clarification saying  – The Minister’s account access was temporarily restricted due to a DMCA notice only & the referenced tweet has been withheld. Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorized representatives.”