The Indian government has raised the issue of abuse on Twitter and has asked the micro-blogging website to ensure that there is no misuse of the platform by any "foreign" elements during the upcoming elections, especially the general elections due next year.“Twitter should not be abused by sinister forces including “foreign” elements to derail fairness of democracy”, union minister for electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad told ET after a meeting with Twitter’s global head of policy Colin Crowell in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Crowell also told ET that the platform is doubling down on its efforts to curb fake accounts and malicious content.
“We are very proud of expansion of Twitter in India. But I have flagged one concern… I have cautioned them. The government doesn’t believe in control at all, and I have suggested that they should have a forum of internal regulatory mechanism (to cut down on abuse),” added Prasad.
He also expressed his concern about abuse of Twitter for encouraging terrorism and communalism and hatred.
Over the last one year, social media companies including Twitter and Facebook have come under the radar for their lack of checks and balances that may have led to influencing the US presidential elections in 2017.
On an ongoing visit to India, Crowell said that the company has focussed on “malicious automation”, and the company is now challenging 6.4 million accounts a week to access whether they are automated or real human beings.
It is also thwarting 5,30,000 suspicious logins a day on Twitter. “That’s a significant increase in the commitment we are making to deal with this issue because we see that as a vulnerability in the election type context.”
He added that company is pouring significant resources into addressing this issue. “We are also doubling down on the commitment that we make in markets like India, which are significant, have elections underway during the course of the year. We want to make sure that the elections are open, they are fair and that is reflected on Twitter.”
The micro-blogging giant has taken down 10 times the number of accounts in 2017 compared to what it did in the previous year and it is deploying a combination of machine learning and human beings to create a safe space.
“In January, our CEO announced that abuse and harassment was the number one issue that we will address. In the last 12 months, we have instituted some twenty-five product and rule changes to help in that fight,” said Crowell.
During the meeting with Prasad, Crowell suggested that the Election Commission of India should be a part of Twitter. “I highlighted that one entity that will be great to have on Twitter will be the Election Commission itself because as we go into the elections in different states, its important for the voice of the Commission to be also present and that’s something we will follow up with the Commission as we go."
Twitter runs a programme called Twitter Seva in India for which it partners with various state police and government departments for citizen engagement. Crowell and Prasad also discussed the need for local language adoption on Twitter. “I see a great market for Twitter in Indian local languages,” said Prasad.
