Twitter - GOI Standoff: Indian Laws To Be Followed Irrespective Of Policies

Twitter - GOI Standoff: Ajay Sawhney, Secretary Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), represented India while Monique Meche, Vice President Global Public Policy and Jim Baker Deputy General Counsel and Vice President Legal were part of the Twitter team up for conversation. 

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After much hullabaloo, Twitter and Indian officials met via video conferencing on Wednesday amid the ongoing tussle between the government and the micro-blogging site on the kind of content and accounts being afloat on the social media platform.

Ajay Sawhney, Secretary Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), represented India while Monique Meche, Vice President Global Public Policy and Jim Baker Deputy General Counsel and Vice President Legal were part of the Twitter team up for conversation. 

In the meeting, the Indian government reminded Twitter that though freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed as a fundamental right to its citizen it still is "not absolute and it is subject to reasonable restrictions."

Ajay Sawhney said that Twitter has to obey the law of the land despite them having their own policies in places. "Indian laws which are enacted by the Parliament of India must be followed irrespective of Twitter’s own rules and guidelines," he said.

"Due to India’s conducive business environment, open Internet and a firm commitment to the freedom of expression Twitter as a platform has grown significantly in India in last few years. Twitter, as a business entity working in India, must also respect the Indian laws and democratic institutions," the secretary reminded Twitter during their conversation.

The government also conveyed to Twitter, that in the manner their platform allows fake, unverified and bot accounts to be operated, it raises doubts about its commitment to transparency.

Meanwhile, Twitter expressed their continuing commitment and requested for better engagement with the government of India.

In the aftermath of the January 26 protests by farmers, which turned violent in the heart of national capital, the government of India had raised objection and demanded suspension of accounts using hashtags referring to Farmers Genocide or accounts being Khalistan sympathisers or those accounts backed by Pakistan creating misinformation and enmity.

While few of the suggestions were taken by Twitter, most of the accounts were temporarily suspended and then restored hence upsetting the government. Twitter in a blog on Wednesday morning explained that it withheld around 500 accounts which subject to reflection in other countries.

Twitter in its blog wrote: "Keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians."

As this blog came ahead of the scheduled meeting India government while responding to it on a homebred app Koo called the move "unusual".