The Modi government has asked Twitter to stop “beating around the bush” and “comply with laws of the land” after the latter expressed concerns regarding the safety of its employees and “potential threat to freedom of expression” for its users.
Stating that Twitter’s statement was an attempt to dictate terms to the world’s largest democracy, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a statement of its own, stating that through its actions and deliberate defiance, Twitter was seeking to undermine to country’s legal system.
“Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush & comply with laws of the land. Lawmaking and policy formulations is the sole prerogative of the sovereign and Twitter is just a social media platform & it has no locus in dictating what India’s legal policy framework should be,” the ministry said.
The ministry said there is no threat to representatives of social media companies, including Twitter, and they would remain safe in India. “There is no threat to their personal safety and security,” the statement read.
The ministry also said that Twitter’s statement was an attempt to defame India to hide its follies.
Delhi Police Turns Up The Heat
It followed a strong-worded statement from Delhi Police which was rebutting the Twitter’s claim that they were being hounded. It termed the statement by Twitter as “mendacious” and “designed to impede a lawful inquiry…”
Delhi police further mentioned that they acted after Congress filed the complaint. Still, Twitter presented it as the action taken against them was on the behest of the Govt of India, which is entirely false.
“Delhi Police registered preliminary inquiry at the complaint filed by the representative of the Indian National Congress (INC). Hence, efforts by Twitter that portray it as an FIR filed at the behest of the Government of India is wholly and completely incorrect,” Delhi Police added.
“Twitter Inc. has taken upon itself, in the garb of terms of service, to adjudicate the truth or otherwise of documents in public space. Twitter Inc. is purporting to be both an investigating authority as well as an adjudicating judicial authority. It has no legal sanction to be either. The only legal entity, so empowered by the duly laid down law, to investigate is the Police and to adjudicate is the Courts.” Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal said.
“Twitter declared that the toolkit was ‘Manipulated Media’, this clearly shows that it was acquainted with the facts of the case & had material information relevant to the probe. Hence, Twitter was asked to join the inquiry to provide the information it possesses,” Delhi Police added.
They also cleared that they only issued a notice to Twitter India’s managing director, but he mentioned that he isn’t an MD rather a general sales head.
However, they pointed out that if he’s merely a sales head, then why earlier he had several “press interactions where he had discussed the company’s plans to devise methods to identify abusive and manipulative content.”
“Its latest statements are devised to seek dubious sympathy when they themselves not only refuse to comply with the law of the land but also claim possession of material evidence but refuse to share it with legal authority duly recognised,” the police concluded the statement.
Things have moved quickly after Twitter dubbed a few tweets by BJP leaders claiming a document to be “Congress toolkit” to destabilise the Modi government as “manipulated media.” Thereafter Congress filed a police complaint which led to Delhi Police swinging into action.
