The Twitter accounts of Canadian-Punjabi artist Jazzy B, as well as three other accounts, have been disabled in India at the request of the government. Back in December 2020, Jazzy B was often tweeting in support of farmers opposing the Centre’s agriculture legislation.
The accounts have effectively been geo-restricted, meaning that while they may still be accessed from IP addresses outside of India, they will be inaccessible or ‘banned’ in India.
In its Help Center section, Twitter clarifies, “… if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time. 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).” An official statement from Twitter regarding these suspensions is awaited.
Jazzy B took to his official Instagram handle and confirmed the report. Sharing a screenshot of the ‘account withheld’ page, he wrote, “I will always stand for the rights of my people #kisanmajdooriktazindabad #neverforget1984 #raiseyourvoice .” In a following Insta post, he added, “Waheguru ji I don’t fear physical death, but when my conscience dies , that is real death #neverforget1984 #kisanmajdooriktazindabad .”
Before Jazzy B, several other Twitter accounts were blocked or withheld for tweeting on the farmers’ protests. In February 2021, around 250 accounts were blocked for several hours following a request from the government.
