Don't beat around the bush, comply with laws of land: Centre to Twitter

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday admonished Twitter for its statements on alleged police intimidation and the new digital rules. It has asked the US-based firm to stop "beating around the bush" and comply with the "laws of the land".
In a strongly-worded letter, the IT ministry said that power to formulate laws is the sole prerogative of the state and Twitter has no locus standi on the matter.

"Law making and policy formulations is sole prerogative of the sovereign ... Twitter is just a social media platform and it has no locus in dictating what should India’s legal policy framework should be," it said.
'Threat to freedom of expression'
In its statement issued earlier today, Twitter expressed concern over the “use of intimidation tactics by the police” after it gave "manipulated media" tag to tweets by the spokesperson of BJP.
The microblogging platform said it is concerned about its employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression.
About the new social media rules, Twitter said it will strive to comply with applicable law in India to keep its service available in the country.
It said it plans to advocate for changes to elements of IT rules “that inhibit free, open public conversation”.
However, it urged the government to give it three more months to comply with the new rules, which include the appointment of an Indian grievance officer to deal with complaints.
“Right now, we are concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serve.
“We, alongside many in civil society in India and around the world, have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service, as well as with core elements of the new IT Rules,” the IT giant said.
'Twitter's statements baseless, attempt to defame India'
The government said it condemns the statement made by Twitter, calling them "baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their follies".

"Freedom of Speech and Expression is a Fundamental Right under the Indian Constitution. 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 said in a statement.
However, the government assured that the representatives of social media companies like Twitter are and will always remain safe in India, adding that there is no threat to their personal safety and security.
Separately, the Delhi Police also issued a strong statement against the platform and said the statements made by it is "mendacious" and "devised to seek sympathy".

The Delhi Police's Special Cell had on Monday sent a notice to Twitter India in connection with the probe into a complaint about the alleged 'Covid toolkit', asking it to share information based on which it had classified a related tweet by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra as "manipulated media".
Two police teams also descended on the microblogging site's offices in Lado Sarai in Delhi and in Gurugram on Monday evening.
New rules
The new rules, announced on February 25, require large social media platforms — defined as those with over 50 lakh users in the country — to follow additional due diligence, including appointment of chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.
Non-compliance with rules would result in these platforms losing their intermediary status that provides them immunity from liabilities over any third-party data hosted by them. In other words, they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints.