New Delhi: Social networking websites in India are facing legal trouble for allegedly deleting posts and suspending users account without their consent. Latest in the dock is micro-blogging website Twitter as a user has sent a legal notice for deletion of tweets without permission and trying to interfere with voting preferences in the upcoming General Elections in India. 

According to the notice served to Twitter, Piyush Kulshreshtha, who is on Twitter by name @ThinkersPad, has demanded an apology from the social media giant for alleged shadow banning his tweets and a compensation of Rs 5 crore. He also blamed that Twitter has violated Election Commission’s model code of conduct by trying to drift the political discourse and favouring a particular ideology.

 

Twitter recently faced allegations of political bias and was summoned by the parliamentary panel on information technology to appear before it. A protest was also carried out against the tech giant for being biased against right-wing users and ideologies on Twitter. Protestors blamed that Twitter blocked these accounts and impressions, but ignored offensive and abusive content, and threats by left-leaning or Congress parties.

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As per the legal notice sent by his lawyers Shubhendu Anand and G Sai Krishna Kumar Kulshreshtra has been witnessing shadow banning of his tweets from a long time and he has informed Twitter about it. 

It must be noted that @ThinkersPad has been using Twitter since December 30, 2009. He has over 37.6 thousand followers.

He alleged that his series of tweets had been deleted without his prior consent. Those tweets which were deleted were political in nature and they adhered to the content policy of social media networking site. Deletion of tweets without prior permission amounts to the violation of privacy and content policy.

The legal notice read, “You are trying to meddle with the freedom of speech and expression of people which is guaranteed by the constitution of India.”

“It is unfortunate that your social media website is indulging into such activities at a time when elections are at the helm of the political affairs of the country and you intend to drift the political discourse in a manner which you intend it to be,” the legal notice further said.

Without naming any political party the notice further said that these tactics are trying to shift the political discourse in favour of a particular ideology or particular party and trying to interfere with elections of a sovereign which is a clear cut violation of Model Code of Conduct and violates the country's penal laws.