 "'Not subject to removal': Twitter restores Haryana minister Anil Vij's post on Disha Ravi")
Twitter on Monday said that a post by Haryana home minister Anil Vij, in which he called for the “extermination” of anti-nationalism “from the roots”, is not subject to removal under rules governing extreme speech on the social media platform. Earlier on Monday, Vij had tweeted about the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi , who has been named by the Delhi Police as a “key conspirator” in the toolkit case related to the farmers’ protest. “Whoever harbours the seeds of anti-nationalism in their mind, that has to be exterminated from the roots, be it #Disha_Ravi or anyone else,” Vij said in a tweet in Hindi.
The tweet was initially deleted after a Twitter user in Germany filed a complaint against Germany’s Network Enforcement Act, NDTV reported . The law “obliges social network providers to delete unlawful content within a short timeframe”. However, the social media platform then said that Vij’s tweet was not subject to removal and restored the post. The response from Twitter read, “We have received a complaint regarding your account, @anilvijminister for the following content. We have investigated the reported content and have found that it is not subject to removal under the Twitter Rules or German law. Accordingly, we have not taken any action as a result of this specific report.”
Ravi was arrested by the Delhi Police on Saturday for allegedly sharing ’the toolkit’ with climate activist Greta Thunberg. The stated aim of the toolkit was “to enable anyone unfamiliar with the ongoing farmers’ protests in India to better understand the situation and make decisions on how to support the farmers”. However, the Delhi Police claimed that the 21-year-old was an editor of the “toolkit Google doc” and “key conspirator” in the document’s formulation and dissemination. In the document, various urgent actions, including creating a Twitter storm and protesting outside Indian embassies, were listed to support the protest. With inputs from PTI