WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
With microblogging platform Twitter on Thursday expressing concerns over “intimidation tactics” by Delhi Police and “potential threat to freedom of expression” in India, The government hit back, calling the statement baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies.
WHY TWITTER ISSUED STATEMENT?
Twitter’s statement came after Delhi police officials visited the company’s office on Monday in connection with a probe over the ongoing “toolkit" row between the ruling BJP and opposition parties.
As per Twitter’s policies, the label “manipulated media” is added only when the content or the tweet has been altered in a way that is different from what the facts are or in a way that its context is completely different from the original. The IT Ministry had also questioned Twitter’s process of labelling the tweets and asked it to come clear on who were the fact-checkers behind the process.
WHAT TWITTER EXACTLY SAID?
“Twitter is deeply committed to the people of India. Our service has proven vital for public conversation and a source of support for people during the pandemic.Right now, we are concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedomof expression for the people we serve.
“We, alongside many in civil society in India and around the world, have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service,as well as with core elements of the new IT Rules.We plan to advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free, open public conversation.We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian
Government and believe it is critical to adopt a collaborative approach.It is the collective responsibility of elected officials, industry, and civil society to safeguard the interests of the public.
The government said that the unfortunate statement issued by Twitter is totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame Indiato hide their own follies.
It asked Twitter to "stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land".
"Twitter refuses to comply with those very regulations in the Intermediary Guidelines on the basis of which it is claiming a safe harbour protection from any criminal liability in India.
"India has a glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices dating back centuries.
Protecting free speech in India is not the prerogative of only a private, for-profit, foreign entity like Twitter," it added.The strongly-worded statement said that the only instance of scuttling free speech on Twitter is Twitter itself and its opaque policies.
"As a result of this, people’s accounts are suspended and tweets deleted arbitrarily without recourse.
RESPONSIBILITY OF SOVEREIGN
The government also said that law making and policy formulation is the "sole prerogative of the sovereign" and a social media platform like Twitter has no locus in dictating what should India’s legal policy framework should be.
"The government also wishes to emphatically assure that representatives of social media companies including Twitter are and will always remain safe in India and there is no threat to their personal safety and security," the Centre said.
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