The company confirmed that it received a legal request from the government to block the handles

Twitter has “withheld” the accounts of popular singer JazzyB, hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion and two others in the country in response to a legal demand by the Indian government sent on June 6.

The company confirmed that it received a legal request from the government to block the handles and it said that “details of the requests to withhold content have been published on Lumen.”

This comes as the government of India and Twitter are engaged in a stand-off over compliance of the new Intermediary Guidelines which came into effect on May 25.

A Twitter spokesperson told ET that “When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law. If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only.”

It added that in all cases, the account holders are notified directly so they’re aware that Twitter received a legal order pertaining to the account.

“Twitter is committed to the principles of openness, transparency, details of the requests to withhold content have been published on Lumen,” the spokesperson said. The ministry of electronics and IT was not immediately available for comment.

Punjabi singer JazzyB has been supporting farmer protests in the country and has also visited the site of the protests in the national capital.

The government on Saturday has sent a final notice to Twitter to comply with the new Intermediary Guidelines, failing which the micro-blogging platform will lose its intermediary status in the country and be liable for the content on its platform under the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code, the government had warned.

Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new IT rules, the US-based microblogging platform said on Monday.

“We have assured the Government of India that Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new guidelines, and an overview on our progress has been duly shared. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian Government,” Twitter had said on Monday.

Sources told ET that Twitter had responded to the government’s missive.

In a letter sent by the ministry of electronics and IT on Saturday, the government has said that despite two warnings in the past and a week since the new IT Rules came into effect, the company has failed to appoint a Chief Compliance Office, a Nodal Officer and a Grievance Officer who is on the rolls of Twitter in India. The company has given a contact of a law firm as its physical address in India, claimed the letter which is not as per the rules.