What to do if your social media account is blocked?

Refer to this explainer to understand what to do if your account is blocked on social media channels like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

30 July, 2021
6 min read

Background

Free Speech is a constitutional guarantee we all are entitled to as citizens of a democratic state. However, this is not an absolute right. While Article 19(1) of the Indian Constitution recognizes that freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right for every Indian citizen, Article 19(2) limits this right to “reasonable restrictions”. It is this vague verbiage that has often fuelled overbroad state interferences on free speech and arbitrary gag orders in the pretext of safeguarding “national interest.”

Is Online Censorship increasing in India?

In recent times, social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp have emerged as the most common portal for mobilising the opinions and views of a diverse demography all over the world. Uruguayan journalist Eduadrdo Galeano had once said, “The walls are the publishers of the poor.” Manifest as our Facebook timelines or Instagram feeds, indeed the ”walls” that the social media has accorded us has revolutionised the access to and the exercise of free speech for one and all. Yet, we are witnessing an unprecedented scale of clampdowns on social media where arbitrary censorship of online speech is increasingly being directed against any voice of dissent. Twitter officials state that they have observed a steep rise in the orders passed by the government directing them to block specific accounts on their platform over the past year.

From an estimated 3600 in all of 2019 to 9800 in 2020 to almost 6000 within the first six months of 2021, the government takedown orders to Twitter have more than doubled in the recent past.

In March 2021, in response to an RTI application filed by Internet Freedom Foundation, the Department of Telecommunications informed us that “94 blocking orders were issued by DoT during 2020 & 2021 pursuant to orders of different Hon'ble courts and 3725 website/URL blocked or access disabled pursuant to these orders.”  This is extremely worrying since social media platforms have penetrated almost every facet of our lives and recently, as the health crisis in India was engorged by a fatal second wave of the Covid-19 infections, we witnessed how information on life saving resources like leads for oxygen, hospital beds, critical medicines etc were tirelessly shared and arranged for over the social media platforms.

  • Section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 allows the Central Government to issue directions to any network provider to block public access to any content online when it is satisfied with the necessity of such an order.
  • Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking For Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009 delineate the process and powers of the Central Government to direct social media platforms to block specific online content. Rule(s) 6 to 9 elaborate on the process of issuing such blocking orders. However, the inexactitude of the terms included in such provisions and the “emergency” safeguards included therein facilitate arbitrary blocking orders without providing any prior notice to the concerned persons, which effectively ciminialise dissent and dilute the observations of the honourable Supreme Court of India in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India as well as Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India. Rule 16 further adds to the lack of transparency by mandating that strict confidentiality shall be maintained regarding all the requests and complaints received and actions taken thereof.
  • Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 obligates social media platforms to remove within thirty six hours any given information from their “computer resources” upon receiving such directions from any government agencies or orders from any competent court. These Rules enlist the categories under which a content can be impugned and such blocking orders can be passed. Further, it imposes a stringent obligation upon the social media platforms to identify the originator of the impugned content and promptly comply with the blocking orders. Alternatively social media platforms stand to lose their “safety harbour” against criminal liability that section 79 of the Information Technology Act confers upon them.
  • Privacy policies and Community Guidelines of the respective social media platforms list down specific instances wherein they disable access to accounts or remove content if any violation is reported. While the particular instances may differ for different social media platforms, the broad categories revolve around potential harms to the human rights of the users. Further, in each instance, the users are given an opportunity to appeal against such a decision and upon the resolution of the issue, the platforms are bound to restore the account or the content, as the case may be.

What can I do if my account is blocked on:

Twitter

Why has Twitter blocked my account?

  • Something you posted may have been identified as “Malicious links that could steal personal information or harm electronic devices”, “Spammy links that mislead people or disrupt their experience”, or have elements of terrorism and extreme violence, child sexual exploitation, illegal or certain regulated goods and services,hateful conduct, violence, private information, non-consensual nudity or hacked material.
  • A government direction or court order may have been issued to Twitter for taking down your content as per section 69A of the IT Act.

What can I do now?

  • It is integral to Twitter’s policy to issue a warning notice to an user prior to blocking any information or provide a post facto communication to the user with details about the action and advice on the appellate process.
  • If such communication is received, you can write to Twitter’s designated officer indicating your grievance. Under the IT Rules, 2021 Twitter is bound to acknowledge your grievance within 24 hours, and take action on it in 15 days. In the event that no such communication has been corresponded to you, you may raise your grievance by filling out this form.

Facebook

Why has Facebook blocked my account?

  • Something you posted may have been identified as a breach of their community standards and data policy.
  • A government direction or court order may have been issued to Facebook for taking down your content as per section 69A of the IT Act.

What can I do now?

  • Facebook’s policies reveal that they preserve some of the user information for the purposes of compliance with requests and orders from law enforcement bodies as per their standard protocols. This becomes difficult to trace as not always are notices issued to the user. However, Facebook enables users to directly get in touch with the grievance redressal team to report or resolve an issue through its help centre.
  • Under the IT Rules, 2021 Facebook is bound to acknowledge your grievance within 24 hours, and take action on it in 15 days. In the event that no such communication has been corresponded to you, you may raise your grievance with the resident grievance officer in India.

Instagram

Why has Instagram blocked my account?

  • Something you posted may have been identified as a breach of their community standards as well as their parent company, Facebook’s community standards.
  • A government direction or court order may have been issued to Facebook for taking down your content as per section 69A of the IT Act.

What can I do now?

  • Instagram’s policies reveal that they preserve some of the user information for the purposes of compliance with requests and orders from law enforcement bodies as per their standard protocols. This becomes difficult to trace as not always are notices issued to the user. However, it enables you to raise a complaint through an in-app redressal centre.
  • Under the IT Rules, 2021 Instagram is bound to acknowledge your grievance within 24 hours, and take action on it in 15 days. In the event that no such communication has been corresponded to you, you may raise your grievance with the resident grievance officer in India.

YouTube

Why has Youtube blocked my account?

  • Something you posted may have been identified as a breach of their policies and categorised as spam and deceptive or sensitive content or maybe violent and dangerous in nature or involving regulated goods.
  • A government direction or court order may have been issued to Youtube for taking down your content as per section 69A of the IT Act.

What can I do now?

  • Youtube reserves the right to block and remove impugned videos if a violation is reported or notified. There are distinct protocols for monetised contents and un-monetized content elaborated under their policies and terms of use. However, Youtube enables users to raise a complaint with the reporting and intelligence desk through these webforms.
  • Under the IT Rules, 2021 Youtube is bound to acknowledge your grievance within 24 hours, and take action on it in 15 days. In the event that no such communication has been corresponded to you, you may raise your grievance with Google, Youtube’s parent company’s resident team in India.

Is there anything else that I can do?

You may also file a RTI application with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting through the online portal, seeking information regarding why your account has been restricted. You may also choose to send a legal notice to the platforms challenging the blocking and demanding your account be restored without delay.

How can IFF be of help?

  • Public transparency capacity: We assist in filing RTI applications, drafting and sending legal notices and representations to the concerned authorities to probe into the nature of account blocking and advocate for safeguarding the digital rights of our community.
  • Strategic Litigation: IFF through its team of lawyers and pro-bono counsels provide direct litigation support to litigants challenging arbitrary blocking and censorship of free speech in various courts in India.
  1. Twitter Grievance Redressal Form (link)
  2. Facebook Help Centre (link)
  3. Instagram In-app redressal centre (link)
  4. Youtube reporting and intelligence desk (link)
  5. Right to Information Online Portal  (link)

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