NEW DELHI: The tussle over handling of certain messages by Twitter escalated today with the Union Government calling a statement issued by the social media platform alleging intimidation as “baseless” and an attempt to “dictate terms to the world’s largest democracy and defame India to hide own follies”.
Twitter, through its actions and “deliberate defiance”, sought to “undermine” India’s legal system, said a three-page note issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
In its statement, Twitter called a visit by the Delhi Police to its offices in the Capital and Gurugram three days ago as “intimidation tactics” and a “potential threat to the freedom of expression”. The Delhi Police claimed the statement was “mendacious” and designed to “impede a lawful inquiry”. Twitter had marked several tweets by ruling BJP leaders, including Sambit Patra, on an alleged toolkit of opposition Congress to target the government over Covid as containing “manipulated media”, which prompted the police to visit its offices late on Monday. The government had asked Twitter to remove the “manipulated media” tag, a directive the social media giant didn’t comply with.
Twitter said, “We will strive to comply with the applicable law in India. But just as we do around the world, we will continue to be strictly guided by principles of transparency, a commitment to empowering every voice on the service and protecting freedom of expression and privacy under the rule of law.”
The government said protecting free speech was not the prerogative of a private, for-profit, foreign entity like Twitter. “The government respects the right of people to ask questions and also criticise on these social media platforms, including Twitter,” it said.