Social media. Twitter suspends 31,637 accounts during June 25-July 26

Our Bureau Updated - August 13, 2021 at 11:13 AM.

Highest number of URLs actioned pertained to abuse or harassment and IP-related infringement

FILE PHOTO: The Twitter logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 28, 2016. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid//File Photo

Micro-blogging platform Twitter on Thursday said it received 120 grievances and ‘actioned’ 167 URLs between June 26 and July 25 in India, adding that it has also suspended a total of 31,637 accounts via proactive data monitoring during this period.

In its monthly compliance report as mandated by the new IT rules, the company said these complaints were received via Twitter’s Grievance Officer - India channel and included content on Twitter. This includes complaints received from individual users with accompanying court orders.

Twitter said the majority of complaints received via Grievance Officer channel during the reporting period fell into categories like Abuse/ Harassment (36), Misinformation/ Synthetic and Manipulated Media (28), Defamation and IP-related Infringement (13 each), Hateful Conduct (12), Impersonation (8), Sensitive Adult Content (5), Privacy Infringement (4) and Terrorism/ Violent Extremism (1).

The highest number of URLs actioned pertained to Abuse/ Harassment and IP-related Infringement (46 each), followed by Privacy Infringement (35), Impersonation (16) and Defamation (15). URLs actioned under Misinformation/ Synthetic and Manipulated Media category stood at seven, and Sensitive Adult Content and Hateful Conduct (one each).

The company said each grievance may identify multiple items. For example, a single grievance may ask Twitter to remove individual tweets, an entire account, or both.

“In addition to the above data, we processed 67 grievances which were appealing Twitter account suspensions. These were all resolved, and the appropriate responses were sent. We overturned 24 of the account suspensions based on the specifics of the situation, but the other accounts remain suspended,” it said in the monthly report.

The US-based company that has around 1.75 crore users in India said its users can report grievances via the Grievance mechanism by using the contact details available on the Grievance Officer - India page. Twitter does not require such reporters to be registered with Twitter or have a Twitter user ID in order to file a grievance, it said.

Separately, global users can report directly from the Tweet or account in question while logged into Twitter, or reports can be made via Twitter’s Help Center, it added.

Published on August 12, 2021 11:17