Government Lash out at Twitter, “Stop Beating Around the Bush and Comply with Indian Law”

NEW DELHI, May 27: Within hours of the Twitter expressing concern over “safety of its employees” and holding India’s new IT rules a “potential threat to freedom of expression” for its users, the central government rebutted saying the statement by the social media intermediary was an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy.

The Centre on Thursday strongly denounced Twitter’s statement that the Indian government’s new IT rules was an “attack on free speech” and said it was an attempt by the micro-blogging website to dictate its terms to India.

In a statement, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said Twitter’s statement was an attempt to defame India to hide its follies.

The centre’s statement was posted on the Twitter’s rival Koo the India-made social media platform, which gained traction earlier this year after the long-standing spat between the Centre on Twitter started around January-February.

The government said the unfortunate statement issued by Twitter was totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies. It asked Twitter to “stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land.”

In the statement, the Centre strongly controverted the claims made by Twitter. “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,” the government statement said.

“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 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.”

The government also said law making and policy formulation was 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.

In the latest round of the ongoing spat, Twitter said in a statement that it is concerned by recent events “regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serve”.

The social network reiterated its commitment to India as a vital market, but criticised new IT rules and regulations that it said “inhibit free, open public conversation.”

In the new digital rules, social media companies like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter have been asked to identify within 36 hours the origin of a flagged messages as well as conduct additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.

According to Twitter, the company is particularly concerned about the requirement to make an individual (the compliance officer) criminally liable for content on the platform, the requirements for proactive monitoring, and the blanket authority to seek information about its users.

This, it said, represents dangerous overreach that is inconsistent with open, democratic principles.

Twitter said it will continue to have dialogue with the government on the new rules.

The Delhi Police which allegedly “raided” Twitter’s offices in Delhi and Gurgaon to “serve notices” in connection with the “Congress Toolkit” controversy, also reverted calling the statement by Twitter as “mendacious” and “designed to impede a lawful inquiry…”.

“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.

Earlier today, a Twitter spokesperson said they have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of Twitter’s 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,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

(Manas Dasgupta)