Delhi Police has sent a notice to Twitter demanding an explanation over its ‘manipulated media’ tag to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra and others on the alleged Congress “toolkit” row.
The notice was issued by Delhi Police special cell on Monday.
Seeking on what basis Twitter decided to add the ‘manipulated media’ label to the tweets, Delhi Police officials have said that as per their investigation, Twitter might possess some facts and information related to the matter.
Earlier, Ministry of Information technology has also asked to issue an explanation for labelling tweets as “manipulated media”
“Twitter unilaterally chose to go ahead and designate certain tweets as ‘Manipulated’, pending investigation by the law enforcement agency. This action not only dilutes the credibility of Twitter as a neutral and unbiased platform facilitating the exchange of views by the users but also puts a question mark on the status of Twitter as an ‘intermediary’,” the Ministry of Electronics and IT said in its communication.
The Centre government has already asked Twitter to remove the ‘manipulated media’ tag as the matter is pending before law enforcement agency and made it clear that the social media platform cannot pass judgment when the issue is under investigation.
Meanwhile, Congress had also written to Delhi Police to file an FIR against BJP leaders including party president JP Nadda, Union Minister Smriti Irani, for sharing “forged and fabricated documents with the intent to create communal disharmony and civil unrest”.