Twitter and the Indian government are at loggerheads

At the center of the conflict is the blackout of profiles linked to peasant protests against the land reform wanted by the Modi government

(Photo by Anindito Mukherjee / Getty Images) The Indian government is calling on citizens to boycott Twitter in favor from local rival platform Koo. It is the result of the tug-of-war between New Delhi and the platform caused by the failure to obscure some profiles after protests for the agrarian reform wanted by the conservative government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and opposed by thousands of farmers.

According to New Delhi, hashtags and profiles have begun to take hold on Twitter that would spread false information on the reform, putting the government's work in a bad light. Therefore, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has ordered the platform to remove 1,100 accounts and posts deemed dangerous. The social network has adapted: it has reduced the visibility of the hashtags that carried the contents pointed out by the Modi government and suspended about 500 accounts that spread fake news and therefore violated the rules of Twitter itself.

The company, however, has refused to restrict the accounts of journalists and political activists, as in his view such measures would not have been consistent with Indian law. In this regard, Twitter explains that the blockade would violate the right to freedom of expression, enshrined in the country's own laws.

New Delhi did not like the move, which said it was disappointed with Twitter's behavior. And he urged Indian users to migrate to a similar platform, Koo.