Twitter 'withholds' journalist Rana Ayyub's account

Journalist Rana Ayyub shared a notice from Twitter on Sunday which informed Ayyub that the microblogging site has withheld her account in India under Information Technology Act, 2000.

Ayyub took to her Twitter account to post the notice and said, "Hello Twitter, what exactly is this?"

"In order to comply with Twitter's obligations under India's local laws, we have withheld the following account in India under the country's Information Technology Act, 2000: the content remains available elsewhere,” the notice read.

"As Twitter strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of the people who use our service, it is our policy to notify account holders if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such law enforcement or government agency) to remove content from their account. We provide notice whether or not the user lives in the country where the request originated. “

In response to Ms Ayyb's tweet, tennis legend Martina Navaratolina said, "So who is next?!? Just awful..." She tagged Rana Ayyub and Twitter on her post.

According to the microblogging site, Twitter, an account withheld message means that the microblogging site "was compelled to withhold the entire account specified in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order."

Twitter's policy states that it may be necessary to withhold accounts in case of a "valid and properly scoped request from an authorised entity. "Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s)," according to its policy.