Nobody knows where the rift between Twitter and the Indian government is headed for. Twitter doesn’t seem to budge from its rules and is risking a ban from the government following the farmer debacle. The rift now seems to make Twitter skip Indian government accounts from its novel verification system. Twitter’s new labeling system has been applied to most nations across the world, except for India, are we are not surprised.
The new labeling system was announced a while ago, wherein Twitter would label government accounts, personnel, personal accounts of world leaders, government-affiliated media outlets, and institutions associated with world leaders. The labels have been given to countries including China, Russia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the USA, and the UK. India, however, isn’t a part of this list. There’s no official reason listed by Twitter for the same.
No Twitter labels for Indian government accounts
Previously, Twitter mentioned that its new labeling system will be applicable where it identifies them as having “state-linked information operations”.
“Our focus is on senior officials, heads of state, and institutions that are the voice of the nation-state abroad, specifically the account categories listed above. We believe this is an important step so that when people see an account discussing geopolitical issues from another country, they have context on its national affiliation, and are better informed about who they represent. We’re also focused on those within the respective administrations underneath the head of state that offers its policy perspective abroad,” says Twitter.
Going by its definition, the Indian government associated accounts should get the labels on par with government accounts of other eligible nations. Maybe Twitter will roll it out in India in a few days, or it could be facing some technical troubles. We will need to wait for that.
However, the relation between the social media app and the government doesn’t seem to improve. Several officials have encouraged Indian users to try Koo, an Indian alternative to Twitter that lets you express yourself in several languages.
The rift between Twitter and the Indian government picked off after the former refused to block certain accounts on the account of the farmer’s protest. Twitter maintained that it did not break the law as there was no formal order from the courts to do so.
