Twitter refuses to restore Sanjay Hegde's account; will take social media giant to court, says SC advocate

After his appeal against the suspension of his Twitter account was dismissed by the social media giant on Tuesday, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde is reportedly considering legal action against the Jack Dorsey-led social media platform.

'Will Take Twitter To Court', Sr Adv Sanjay Hegde @sanjayuvacha On Suspension Of His Account [Video Interview]
@TwitterIndia @Twitter @jack #SanjayHegde https://t.co/6QnjxrolcJ

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) November 5, 2019

The senior advocate, whose account had been suspended twice last week by Twitter, received an email from Twitter on Tuesday morning stating that his appeal against the suspension of the account has been dismissed, The Print reported. “Your account has been suspended and will not be restored because it was found to be violating Twitter’s Terms of Service, specifically the Twitter Rules against using hateful or sensitive content in your profile,” the email read. Subsequently, Hegde said that he is contemplating legal action against the social media giant. “I am left with no option but to migrate to an alternate platform and take Twitter and others to court. I am examining all options including courts outside India,” he told LiveLaw. Why was Hegde’s account suspended? The Supreme Court advocate’s account — which had 98,000 followers — was first suspended on 26 October for his cover image which depicted a German national, August Landmesser, refusing to enact the Nazi salute before Hitler. Hegde told LiveLaw that the image had been his cover picture for months before the suspension. The account was restored the next day with the cover image removed, but was suspended again on 27 October, over a 2017 tweet. From his handle @sanjayuvacha, Hegde had re-tweeted Kavita Krishnan, who had  shared a poem by Gorakh Pandey, ‘Usko Phaansi Do’ along with its English translation, ‘Hang Him’, said the report in The Print. Twitter decided to suspend Hegde’s account after this tweet was mass reported and later informed him that his account would be restored if he deleted the tweet. However, Hegde refused to do so and said that he will appeal to Twitter against the suspension of his account. “I can get into Twitter any time I want if I delete the tweet, but I will not delete the tweet. This is a catch-22 situation. I want my appeal to be decided,” he told The Print. The SC advocate has been known to take up socially relevant cases and has also been an outspoken critic of the current government.