Twitter blocks IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's account for an hour over breach of US copyright laws

"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," Prasad said in a series of tweets.

"Twitter's actions were in gross violation of Rule 4(8) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 where they failed to provide me any prior notice before denying me access to my own account," he said.

The fresh episode comes in the backdrop of a prolonged feud between the Indian government and Twitter, which has failed to comply wholly with the new IT rules of the government.

According to the new rules enforced last month, major social media companies like Facebook and Twitter are required to appoint a grievance officer, a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer, all based in India.

The new rules also call for companies to follow greater due diligence, take down content flagged as offensive within 36 hours and  trace the "first originator" of any information found to undermine the sovereignty of India, the security of the state, or public order.

"It is apparent that my statements calling out the high handedness and arbitrary actions of Twitter, particularly sharing the clips of my interviews to TV channels and its powerful impact, have clearly ruffled its feathers," Prasad added.

"Further, it is now apparent as to why Twitter is refusing to comply with the Intermediary Guidelines because if Twitter does comply, it would be unable to arbitrarily deny access to an individual's account which does not suit their agenda," Mr Prasad said.

"Twitter's actions indicate that they are not the harbinger of free speech that they claim to be but are only interested in running their own agenda, with the threat that if you do not tow the line they draw, they will arbitrarily remove you from their platform," the minister said.

"No matter what any platform does, they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there shall be no compromise on that," he added.

Recently, Twitter also lost its legal shield for failing to comply with the new rules.

According to the new rules, in case of non-compliance, the social media platforms will lose their status as 'intermediaries' and will be held responsible for all the content published on their platforms, making them liable to face criminal action.