The Evening Wrap: India tops list of nations seeking to block tweets, says Twitter report

India made the highest number of legal demands globally to remove content posted by verified journalists and news outlets on Twitter during July-December 2021, the microblogging platform said. In its latest transparency report, Twitter said India was only behind the U.S. in seeking Twitter account information, accounting for 19% of global information requests. It was among the top five countries to issue content-blocking orders to Twitter during July-December 2021 for all kinds of users. Twitter said 349 accounts of verified journalists and news outlets located around the world were subject to 326 legal demands to remove content, a 103% increase in the number of accounts since the previous period (January-June 2021). “This spike is largely attributed to legal demands submitted by India (114), Turkey (78), Russia (55), and Pakistan (48),” it said. India had topped this list for January-June 2021 as well. In that timeframe, India had made 89 of the total 231 such demands the platform received globally. Twitter said ‘legal demands’ include a combination of court orders and other formal demands to remove content, from both governmental entities and lawyers representing individuals. Without giving details, 17 tweets from verified journalists and news outlets globally were withheld during the second half of 2021 as compared to 11 tweets withheld during January-June. Twitter said it received a legal demand from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in India to remove content relating to privacy issues involving a minor. While Twitter did not name anyone, the reference was to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s tweet of August last year when he shared a picture of the parents of a minor Dalit girl who was allegedly raped. “The reported tweet published by a high-ranking political figure was withheld in India in compliance with the Indian law,” it said. Twitter also received the second highest number of government legal requests for providing account information of users from India, after the U.S. “The United States submitted the most government information requests during this reporting period, accounting for 20% of the global volume, and 39% of the global accounts specified. “The second highest volume of requests originated from India, comprising 19% of global information requests and 27% of the global accounts specified,” it said. Japan, France and Germany were the other three nations in top five countries by volume. “Twitter received 63 (+3%) more routine requests from India, while the number of routine accounts specified increased by 205 (+3%) during this reporting period for a total of 2,211 requests for 7,768 accounts,” the report said. Globally, Twitter received 11,460 requests. Giving details of legal demands made from India, Twitter said a total of 3,992, or 8% of 47,572 worldwide, requests to remove content from its platform were made during July-December 2021. These included 23 court orders and 3,969 other legal demands. During this period, Twitter withheld 88 accounts and 303 tweets in India. As per Twitter guidelines, ‘government information requests’ include both emergency and routine legal demands for account information issued by law enforcement and other government agencies. ‘Routine requests’ (aka non-emergency requests) are legal demands issued by government or law enforcement authorities (e.g., subpoenas, court orders, search warrants) that compel Twitter to turn over account information. Twitter said it may disclose account information to law enforcement agencies in response to a valid ‘emergency request’ if it is provided with sufficient information to support a good faith belief that there is an imminent threat involving danger of death or serious physical injury to a person, and it has information relevant to averting or mitigating the threat. “97% of the total global volume of legal demands originated from only five countries (in decreasing order): Japan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and India. These five countries have remained Twitter’s top requesting countries for legal demands over the past three years,” the report said. India is the fifth highest requestor, accounting for 8% of global legal demands. “Maintaining its position among the top five requesters, the Indian authorities continued to submit a significant number of legal demands this reporting period, which also included a high volume of URLs,” it said. On ‘preservation requests’, it said global government preservation requests increased by 10%, while accounts specified increased by 19% during this reporting period. The U.S. (34%) and India (51%) together accounted for 85% of all global preservation requests. ‘Preservation requests’ refer to government and law enforcement requests made in accordance with relevant law that require Twitter to maintain the specified account data pending the issuance of a valid legal process to obtain that data. Will present facts: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on High Court summons on Smriti Irani defamation suit Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said he will present the facts before the court and challenge the alleged “spin” given by Union Minister Smriti Irani on the matter pertaining to charges against her daughter. The Delhi High Court on Friday issued summons to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D’Souza on a civil defamation suit filed by Irani seeking damages of over ₹2 crore for allegedly making baseless allegations against her and her daughter. In a tweet, Ramesh said, “The Delhi High Court has issued notice asking us to formally reply to the case filed by Smriti Irani. We look forward to presenting the facts before the court. We will challenge and disprove the spin being put out by Ms. Irani”. The Court also directed the three Congress leaders to remove tweets, retweets, posts, videos and photos from social media in relation to the allegations made against Irani, who is holding the portfolio of Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Minority Affairs, and her daughter. The Congress on July 23 had demanded Irani’s sacking, alleging her daughter was running an illegal bar in Goa, but the Minister had claimed the “malicious” charge was made at the behest of the Gandhi family due to her vocal stand in the National Herald linked money-laundering case and vowed to fight back. I am a victim of conspiracy, says Partha Chatterjee A day after he was stripped of all posts in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and relieved of ministerial duties, following his arrest in connection with a school recruitment scam, Partha Chatterjee said that he was a victim of a conspiracy hatched against him. The 69-year-old leader, who is under the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), was taken to ESI hospital at Joka on the southern outskirts of the city for a medical check up during the day. As he deboarded a vehicle and was approached by reporters, Chatterjee said he was just a “victim of a conspiracy”. Chatterjee, who was the Industries and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, had held the Education Portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off. One of his close aides, Arpita Mukherjee, was also arrested by the ED after crores of rupees in cash were seized from her residences in parts of the city. On Thursday evening, Central agency officials had raided a third apartment linked to Mukherjee in the city’s Chinar Park area. As the flat was locked and the keys could not be traced, ED sleuths broke open its entrance door in the presence of central force officers. Earlier, a raid was carried out in Mukherjee’s Belghoria area flat, where around ₹28 crore unaccounted cash was apparently found stashed along with large quantities of gold and silver. The CBI, as directed by Calcutta High Court, is probing the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C and -D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and -aided schools on the recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission. The ED is looking into the money trail involved in the scam. No provision in rules or proposal to include menstrual leave: Smriti Irani Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani has said the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, applicable to Central government employees, do not have provisions for menstrual leave, and currently there is no proposal being examined to include such leave in the rules. In a written reply to a question from Member of Parliament D. Ravikumar on the provisions for menstrual leave, the Union Minister said various types of leave were available to women government employees under these rules, such as earned leave, half-pay leave, extraordinary leave, child care leave, commuted leave, maternity leave, leave on medical certificate and leave not due. On access to sanitary napkins and medicines for women employees of public offices, she said the Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, implemented the Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojna, a step towards ensuring health security of women. Under the project, over 8,700 Jan Aushadhi Kendras were set up across the country, providing oxo-biodegradable sanitary napkins at ₹1 per pad. Russia says shelling killed dozens of Ukrainian POWs Russian-backed separatists said Friday that a Ukrainian attack with US-supplied missiles on a separatist eastern region hit a prison and killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were captured in Mariupol. There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from Ukraine. The attack with HIMARS multiple rocket launchers on the prison in Olenivka, in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region, also injured 75 Ukrainian POWs, said Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov. Speaking before the latest update from the separatists, he put the death toll at 40. Konashenkov described the strike as a “bloody provocation” aimed at discouraging Ukrainian soldiers from surrendering. He said that eight prison guards were also wounded by the shelling. The attack could not be independently verified and officials in Ukraine have not yet commented on the reports. Ukrainian authorities in the Donetsk region said Russia has pressed on with the shelling of civilian targets in Ukrainian-held areas. “The fighting in the region has been intensifying by the day, and civilians must evacuate while it’s still possible,” said Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko. “The Russian army doesn’t worry about civilian casualties. They are pummeling cities and villages in the region.” The Ukrainian troops in Mariupol were taken prisoner after the fierce fighting for Ukraine’s Azov Sea port, where they had been holed up at the giant Azovstal steel mill. Their resistance had become a symbol of Ukrainian struggle against the Russian invasion that started on February 24. In Brief Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) will have a new State Coordinator from August 1. IAS officer Partha Pratim Mazumdar will replace incumbent Hitesh Dev Sarma, who retires on July 31, as the third State Coordinator for NRC. The first was bureaucrat Prateek Hajela. A notification issued by Jadav Saikia, Secretary to the Personnel Department, said Mazumdar would be transferred as a Secretary to the Home and Political Department as well as the State Coordinator for the NRC and the in-charge of the NRC Directorate. The Supreme Court-monitored NRC exercise, aimed at weeding out “illegal immigrants” from Assam, has been in limbo since the complete draft list of citizens was published on August 31, 2019. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 29 JULY 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( India tops list of nations seeking blocking tweets by journalists, news outlets: Twitter report [India made the highest number of legal demands]( globally to remove content posted by verified journalists and news outlets on Twitter during July-December 2021, the microblogging platform said. In its latest transparency report, Twitter said India was only behind the U.S. in seeking Twitter account information, accounting for 19% of global information requests. It was among the top five countries to issue content-blocking orders to Twitter during July-December 2021 for all kinds of users. Twitter said 349 accounts of verified journalists and news outlets located around the world were subject to 326 legal demands to remove content, a 103% increase in the number of accounts since the previous period (January-June 2021). “This spike is largely attributed to legal demands submitted by India (114), Turkey (78), Russia (55), and Pakistan (48),” it said. India had topped this list for January-June 2021 as well. In that timeframe, India had made 89 of the total 231 such demands the platform received globally. Twitter said ‘legal demands’ include a combination of court orders and other formal demands to remove content, from both governmental entities and lawyers representing individuals. Without giving details, 17 tweets from verified journalists and news outlets globally were withheld during the second half of 2021 as compared to 11 tweets withheld during January-June. Twitter said it received a legal demand from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in India to remove content relating to privacy issues involving a minor. While Twitter did not name anyone, the reference was to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s tweet of August last year when he shared a picture of the parents of a minor Dalit girl who was allegedly raped. “The reported tweet published by a high-ranking political figure was withheld in India in compliance with the Indian law,” it said. Twitter also received the second highest number of government legal requests for providing account information of users from India, after the U.S. “The United States submitted the most government information requests during this reporting period, accounting for 20% of the global volume, and 39% of the global accounts specified. “The second highest volume of requests originated from India, comprising 19% of global information requests and 27% of the global accounts specified,” it said. Japan, France and Germany were the other three nations in top five countries by volume. “Twitter received 63 (+3%) more routine requests from India, while the number of routine accounts specified increased by 205 (+3%) during this reporting period for a total of 2,211 requests for 7,768 accounts,” the report said. Globally, Twitter received 11,460 requests. Giving details of legal demands made from India, Twitter said a total of 3,992, or 8% of 47,572 worldwide, requests to remove content from its platform were made during July-December 2021. These included 23 court orders and 3,969 other legal demands. During this period, Twitter withheld 88 accounts and 303 tweets in India. As per Twitter guidelines, ‘government information requests’ include both emergency and routine legal demands for account information issued by law enforcement and other government agencies. ‘Routine requests’ (aka non-emergency requests) are legal demands issued by government or law enforcement authorities (e.g., subpoenas, court orders, search warrants) that compel Twitter to turn over account information. Twitter said it may disclose account information to law enforcement agencies in response to a valid ‘emergency request’ if it is provided with sufficient information to support a good faith belief that there is an imminent threat involving danger of death or serious physical injury to a person, and it has information relevant to averting or mitigating the threat. “97% of the total global volume of legal demands originated from only five countries (in decreasing order): Japan, Russia, South Korea, Turkey, and India. These five countries have remained Twitter’s top requesting countries for legal demands over the past three years,” the report said. India is the fifth highest requestor, accounting for 8% of global legal demands. “Maintaining its position among the top five requesters, the Indian authorities continued to submit a significant number of legal demands this reporting period, which also included a high volume of URLs,” it said. On ‘preservation requests’, it said global government preservation requests increased by 10%, while accounts specified increased by 19% during this reporting period. The U.S. (34%) and India (51%) together accounted for 85% of all global preservation requests. ‘Preservation requests’ refer to government and law enforcement requests made in accordance with relevant law that require Twitter to maintain the specified account data pending the issuance of a valid legal process to obtain that data. Will present facts: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on High Court summons on Smriti Irani defamation suit Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said [he will present the facts before the court]( and challenge the alleged “spin” given by Union Minister Smriti Irani on the matter pertaining to charges against her daughter. The Delhi High Court on Friday issued summons to Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Netta D’Souza on a civil defamation suit filed by Irani seeking damages of over ₹2 crore for allegedly making baseless allegations against her and her daughter. In a tweet, Ramesh said, “The Delhi High Court has issued notice asking us to formally reply to the case filed by Smriti Irani. We look forward to presenting the facts before the court. We will challenge and disprove the spin being put out by Ms. Irani”. The Court also [directed the three Congress leaders to remove tweets, retweets, posts, videos and photos]( from social media in relation to the allegations made against Irani, who is holding the portfolio of Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Minority Affairs, and her daughter. The Congress on July 23 had demanded Irani’s sacking, alleging her daughter was running an illegal bar in Goa, but the Minister had claimed the “malicious” charge was made at the behest of the Gandhi family due to her vocal stand in the National Herald linked money-laundering case and vowed to fight back. I am a victim of conspiracy, says Partha Chatterjee A day after he was stripped of all posts in the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and relieved of ministerial duties, following his arrest in connection with a school recruitment scam, [Partha Chatterjee said that he was a victim of a conspiracy]( hatched against him. The 69-year-old leader, who is under the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), was taken to ESI hospital at Joka on the southern outskirts of the city for a medical check up during the day. As he deboarded a vehicle and was approached by reporters, Chatterjee said he was just a “victim of a conspiracy”. [Former Bengal Minister Partha Chattterjee is taken to a hospital in Kolkata on July 29, 2022. ] Chatterjee, who was the Industries and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, had held the Education Portfolio when the scam was allegedly pulled off. One of his close aides, Arpita Mukherjee, was also arrested by the ED after crores of rupees in cash were seized from her residences in parts of the city. On Thursday evening, Central agency officials had raided a third apartment linked to Mukherjee in the city’s Chinar Park area. As the flat was locked and the keys could not be traced, ED sleuths broke open its entrance door in the presence of central force officers. Earlier, a raid was carried out in Mukherjee’s Belghoria area flat, where around ₹28 crore unaccounted cash was apparently found stashed along with large quantities of gold and silver. The CBI, as directed by Calcutta High Court, is probing the alleged irregularities committed in the recruitment of Group-C and -D staff as well as teachers in government-sponsored and -aided schools on the recommendations of the West Bengal School Service Commission. The ED is looking into the money trail involved in the scam. No provision in rules or proposal to include menstrual leave: Smriti Irani Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani has said [the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, applicable to Central government employees, do not have provisions for menstrual leave]( and currently there is no proposal being examined to include such leave in the rules. [Union Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani arrives at Parliament House on July 29, 2022. ] In a written reply to a question from Member of Parliament D. Ravikumar on the provisions for menstrual leave, the Union Minister said various types of leave were available to women government employees under these rules, such as earned leave, half-pay leave, extraordinary leave, child care leave, commuted leave, maternity leave, leave on medical certificate and leave not due. On access to sanitary napkins and medicines for women employees of public offices, she said the Department of Pharmaceuticals, under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, implemented the Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojna, a step towards ensuring health security of women. Under the project, over 8,700 Jan Aushadhi Kendras were set up across the country, providing oxo-biodegradable sanitary napkins at ₹1 per pad. Russia says shelling killed dozens of Ukrainian POWs Russian-backed separatists said Friday that a Ukrainian attack with US-supplied missiles on a separatist eastern region hit a prison and [killed 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war]( who were captured in Mariupol. There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from Ukraine. The attack with HIMARS multiple rocket launchers on the prison in Olenivka, in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region, also injured 75 Ukrainian POWs, said Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov. Speaking before the latest update from the separatists, he put the death toll at 40. Konashenkov described the strike as a “bloody provocation” aimed at discouraging Ukrainian soldiers from surrendering. He said that eight prison guards were also wounded by the shelling. The attack could not be independently verified and officials in Ukraine have not yet commented on the reports. Ukrainian authorities in the Donetsk region said Russia has pressed on with the shelling of civilian targets in Ukrainian-held areas. “The fighting in the region has been intensifying by the day, and civilians must evacuate while it’s still possible,” said Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko. “The Russian army doesn’t worry about civilian casualties. They are pummeling cities and villages in the region.” The Ukrainian troops in Mariupol were taken prisoner after the fierce fighting for Ukraine’s Azov Sea port, where they had been holed up at the giant Azovstal steel mill. Their resistance had become a symbol of Ukrainian struggle against the Russian invasion that started on February 24. In Brief [Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) will have a new State Coordinator]( from August 1. IAS officer Partha Pratim Mazumdar will replace incumbent Hitesh Dev Sarma, who retires on July 31, as the third State Coordinator for NRC. The first was bureaucrat Prateek Hajela. A notification issued by Jadav Saikia, Secretary to the Personnel Department, said Mazumdar would be transferred as a Secretary to the Home and Political Department as well as the State Coordinator for the NRC and the in-charge of the NRC Directorate. The Supreme Court-monitored NRC exercise, aimed at weeding out “illegal immigrants” from Assam, has been in limbo since the complete draft list of citizens was published on August 31, 2019. 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