Shashi Tharoor too faces Twitter lockout after he posts for Ravi Shankar Prasad

"As Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, I can state that we will be seeking an explanation from @TwitterIndia for the locking of @rsprasad's & my accounts & the rules & procedures they follow while operating in India," he tweeted.

"And @Twitter  locked me out again because to explain the problem, the first tweet in this thread included the offending copyrighted video. Locking is a foolish response to a DCMA notice; disabling the video (which they've now done) should be enough. @Twitter  has a lot to learn," he said.

He said the account was locked because of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DMCA which governs most US-based web platforms and that is why the Union Minister was blocked from accessing his Twitter account and perhaps not vendetta as Prasad had alleged.

"So I won't blame @Twitter for this action or attribute the motives to them that @rsprasad does, though it wasn't pleasant finding my account locked. Clearly they had no choice but to honour a DMCA takedown notice, however stupid & pointless the request was," he tweeted.

Earlier in the day, Ravi Shankar Prasad said Twitter blocked his account for nearly an hour over complaints that he violated copyright laws by posting video clips of himself from television programmes.

"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.