Micro-blogging site Twitter blocked several accounts and tweets after the Indian government asked the platform to take action against 250 handles and posts for containing ”false and provocative content” related to the ongoing farmers” agitation.

These include accounts of Kisan Ekta Morcha and BKU Ekta Urgahan that have thousands of followers and have been actively involved in the ongoing protests, largely taking place on the border of New Delhi. Allegedly a Member of Parliament too had his accounted blocked.

A PTI reports quotes unnamed sources as saying the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) directed Twitter to block around 250 tweets/Twitter accounts that were making ”fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets” on January 30 with hashtags accusing the Modi government of planning farmers ”genocide” without any further substantiation.

An unlikely fallout of this blocking was that the account of national broadcaster Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Vempati too got blocked.

The PTI report states that the blocking of various handles was done at the request of the Ministry of Home Affairs and law enforcement agencies to prevent any escalation of law and order in view of the ongoing farmer agitation, the sources said adding that these tweets/accounts have now been blocked under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act.

When contacted by PTI, a Twitter spokesperson said if it receives a “properly scoped request” from an authorised entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time. “Transparency is vital to protecting freedom of expression, so we have a notice policy for withheld content. Upon receipt of requests to withhold content, we will promptly notify the affected account holders (unless we are prohibited from doing so eg if we receive a court order under seal),” the spokesperson added.

However, Twitter did not provide details of the accounts/tweets that were blocked. Upon searching for accounts including Kisan Ekta Morcha (@Kisanektamorcha) and BKU Ekta Urgahan (@Bkuektaugrahan), a message saying “account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand” was displayed, the PTI reports states.

Besides these, several other individual and organizational accounts, including one of a media outlet and another of a senior functionary of a separate entity, were also withheld, even as debates started on social media over the development.

The development comes in the wake of violence in Delhi on January 26 during a tractor parade of farmers, protesting against the three new central agriculture laws.