'Stop Beating Around The Bush, Comply With New IT Rules': Centre's Strong Response To Twitter

The government said law making and policy formulations is the sole prerogative of the sovereign, adding Twitter is just a social media platform and it has no locus in dictating what should India’s legal policy framework should be.

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday condemned the statement issued by Twitter as totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies and asked the micro-blogging platform to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in a statement said the government “strongly controverts the claims made by Twitter today in its press release”.

The government said law making and policy formulations is the sole prerogative of the sovereign, adding Twitter is just a social media platform and it has no locus in dictating what should India’s legal policy framework should be.

Asserting India has a glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices dating back centuries, the government said: “Protecting free speech in India is not the prerogative of only a private, for-profit, foreign entity like Twitter, but it is the commitment of the world’s largest democracy and its robust institutions.”

The government said Twitter’s statement is an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy.

“Through its actions and deliberate defiance, Twitter seeks to undermine India’s legal system. Furthermore, 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 added.

Questioning if Twitter is so committed then why it did not set up such a mechanism in India on its own, the government pointed out that the Twitter representatives in India routinely claim that they have no authority and that they and the people of India need to escalate everything to the Twitter Headquarter in the United States.

“The purported commitment of Twitter, to its Indian user base, thus not only sounds hollow but completely self-serving,” the government said.

Launching a vitriolic attack, the government said Twitter earns significant revenue from its Indian operations courtesy a large user base in India but is also the “most reluctant to appoint an India based grievance redressal officer and mechanism, chief compliance officer and nodal officer to whom its own users can complain, when they are subjected to offensive Tweets”.

In an apparent reference to the ‘toolkit’ row, the government said the rules empower the ordinary users who become victims of defamation, morphed images, sexual abuse and the whole range of other abusive content in blatant violation of law to seek redress.

“These rules were finalized after widest possible consultations including with representatives of social media platforms. Ministry of Electronics and IT put the draft Rules in public domain and invited public comments. The Ministry received large number of comments from individuals, civil society, industry associations and organizations. A significant number of counter comments to these comments were also received,” the government said.

“There are also various judicial orders by various courts including the Supreme Court of India directing the Government to take appropriate steps. There are also several Parliamentary debates and recommendations to take appropriate measures,” the government added.

Stating that freedom of speech and expression is a fundamental right under the Indian Constitution, the ministry said the Government of India respects the right of people to ask questions and also criticize on these social media platforms, including on Twitter.

“The government equally respects the right of privacy. However, the only instance of scuttling free speech on Twitter is Twitter itself and its opaque policies, as a result of which people’s accounts are suspended and tweets deleted arbitrarily without recourse,” the ministry added.

Taking a jibe at Twitter over its claims that it is committed to the people of India, the government said, ironically, this commitment of Twitter has been most invisible in recent times and shared some recent examples to justify its assertion.

The government drew attention to the fact that Twitter chose to show the geo-location of certain locations in Union Territory of Ladakh as part of People’s Republic of China at a time when India and China were engaged in peaceful resolution of border related issues through bilateral dialogue.

“Twitter took several days, that too only after repeated reminders, to rectify this blatant disrespect to India’s sensitivity and territorial integrity,” the government added.

Continuing its outburst, the government said Twitter chose to take suo-moto action against those users who it considered as perpetrators of violence at the Capitol Hill in the USA.

“But, just a few days after the unlawful incidents on Red Fort in Delhi, Twitter refused to take prompt action on the lawful request made by the Government of India to block contents that sought to incite violence on the pretext of a fake genocide plan. Later, it chose to comply, that too partially, when the damage had been done,” the government added.

The Centre further said Twitter’s lack of responsibility has led to rampant proliferation of fake and harmful content against India and the Indians.

“Promoting vaccine hesitancy has been rampantly done through the use of Twitter platform and yet Twitter has taken no action. Is this commitment to the people of India?” the government asked.

Highlighting that discriminatory behavior has been practiced against Indians and the people of Indian origin because of malicious tagging of B.1.617 mutant as ‘Indian variant’ name despite strict WHO guidelines against it, the government said: “Again, Twitter has taken no action against such fake narratives and Tweets while grandiosely claiming to serve the people of India.”

Throwing light on the communique from Twitter Inc., which states that it seeks “constructive dialogue”, “collaborative approach” from the government of a sovereign democratic republic to “safeguard interests of the public”, the Centre said it is time that Twitter disabuses itself of this grandiosity and comply with the laws of India. 

The government also emphatically assured the representatives of social media companies, including Twitter, that they “are and will always remain safe in India and there is no threat to their personal safety and security”.

Condemning the “unfortunate statement issued by Twitter as totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies”, the government further said the Delhi Police has also issued a detailed press release, pertaining to an ongoing investigation, which answer the completely baseless allegations raised.