Twitter Cannot Dictate Terms, Will get Punished In case Indian Laws Are Broken
Imagine Twitter after violating law of the land has expressed concern over freedom of expression in India, days after police visited its offices. It sshoul have been very clear to Twitter that it will not be permitted to break any law of the land under any pretext and will get Punished for it.
Naturally the police served notice to the social media giant behaving like the erstwhile East India Company, after it labelled a ruling party tweet “manipulated media”.Twitter had applied the label to a post by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra.
The government has said Twitter must obey the law. The government has come down heavily on this foreign media firm based in USA and which is trying to show defiance over new rules for digital content.
Leaders of the BJP had shared screenshots of a document on Twitter recently that they said had been created by the main opposition Congress party to highlight government failures over the handling of the pandemic.
Congress complained to Twitter that the documents were fake, leading Twitter to mark some of the posts – including one by Mr Patra – as “manipulated media”. Well India is not going to permit such actions and defiance of Indian Laws. Twitter is no one to make its own interpretation of the Law. Twitter says it has done it under its rules, it applies such tags to posts that include “media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated”.
“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,” a Twitter spokesperson told the BBC.
Well even BBC is not permitted to play with Indian law, even in the name of freedom of expression. We are not going to permit any new EAST INDIA COMPANY under any pretext whatsoever.
“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.” Twitter instead of giving out such statements, should of gone to court in case it felt so aggrieved. Laws of the land are interpreted by Indian Courts only and no where else ……not by BBC or New York Times.
Delhi police, as per their statement, paid a visit to Twitter’s offices on Monday was to serve a notice to the company’s managing director after receiving a complaint about how Mr Patra’s tweet had been classified.
Later on Thursday, the Government statement made a stern statement regarding Twitters attempt to dictate terms to Government of India …..does it think that India is like Grenada or Dominican Republic ? India is the world’s largest democracy” and performs more democratically than even Twitters own country the USA. So Twitter should not even try to undermine the country’s legal system.
“Twitter needs to stop beating about the bush and comply with the laws of the land,” the statement said. It forgot to add …..or face the music.
Indian Farmers Protest
I this year Twitter blocked a number of accounts linked to farmer protests
Fined up with actions of certain media houses which were determined to undermine the sovereignty and unity of India, in February, the government introduced new guidelines to regulate digital content on social media and streaming platforms.
Under the new rules, social media platforms with more than five million users would be required to appoint a compliance officer, a nodal contact officer and a resident grievance officer.
In addition, they would have to track the originator of a particular message if asked by a court or the government.
Platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp were given three months to comply with these rules.
On Wednesday,under its own interpretation of the Law, instead of obeying it, WhatsApp sued the Indian government, saying the rules would force the messaging service to violate privacy protections.
Twitter said it was “particularly concerned about the requirement to make an individual (the compliance officer) criminally liable for content on the platform, the requirements for proactive monitoring, and the blanket authority to seek information about our customers”.
This, the company said, represented “dangerous overreach that is inconsistent with open, democratic principles”. Imagine a business Company trying to teach the meaning of democracy to India.
Twitter urged the government to “consider a minimum of three months extension in order for Twitter to implement the rules”.
“We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian government and believe it is critical to adopt a collaborative approach. It is the collective responsibility of elected officials, industry, and civil society to safeguard the interests of the public,” the spokesperson said.
In April, Twitter complied with an order to remove tweets critical of the government’s handling of the virus.
Earlier this year, it unblocked a number of accounts following a request from authorities. The accounts were linked to protests against farm reforms. If Twitter had not complied, it could have meant jail time for Twitter’s employees in India.
