Ravi Shankar Prasad, India's Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, has fired off a broadside agains

Twitter Suspends India’s Minister of Communications After Sony DMCA Notice

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2021-06-29 01:30:04

Ravi Shankar Prasad, India's Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, has fired off a broadside against Twitter after it suspended his account for alleged copyright infringement. After first accusing Twitter of stifling free speech, it now appears that Sony filed a DMCA notice that targeted a 2017 tweet linking to unlicensed music.

People who post content created by other people to platforms like Twitter run the risk being accused of copyright infringement. In response, Twitter can choose to suspend or even ban accounts entirely.

These events are relatively common and attract very little attention, unless the account in question is operated by someone famous or who is otherwise important.

On Friday, Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, had his account suspended by Twitter. The clearly infuriated Minister later took to Twitter itself to voice his displeasure, with a brief but inconclusive explanation for the action.

“Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today,” Prasad wrote. “Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account.”