The Government of India has said in a strong tone from Twitter that in India it has to follow the Indian laws. The government has also expressed displeasure over the delay in following orders to ban some Twitter accounts.
In the atmosphere of the growing controversy between Twitter and the Government of India, a virtual dialogue has taken place between Monike Meshe, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, and Global Public Policy Vice President of Twitter. The Government of India has confirmed this.
In this dialogue, the government has asked Twitter not to adopt double standards and not violate government orders, and respect democratic institutions.
The Government of India had asked Twitter to delete some disputed accounts and pro-Khalistan accounts. There is a dispute between Twitter and the government regarding this. Meanwhile, Twitter has banned some Twitter accounts on the orders of the government on Wednesday.
In a statement issued by the Government of India, it has been told that Secretary of the Ministry Ajay Sahni has told the representatives of Twitter that India respects freedom of expression and criticism because it is part of our democracy.
The statement also states that freedom of expression is not autocratic and appropriate restrictions apply to it as described in Article 19 (2) of the Constitution of India. In many decisions of the Supreme Court of India, this principle has been justified many times.
India has told the representatives of Twitter that Twitter is welcome to do business in India but Twitter also has to respect India's laws and democratic institutions.
A statement issued by the government said that "Twitter can make its own rules and guidelines but the laws passed in the Parliament of India will have to be followed, even if Twitter has its own rules and guidelines."
Anger was also expressed by the government for the hashtag 'Farmer Genocide' (massacre of farmers). The Government of India has asked Twitter to ban more than 250 accounts tweeting using this hashtag.
Twitter had also banned many accounts in India at the behest of the government but they were revived in a few hours citing freedom of expression. Now again such accounts are being banned.
On behalf of the government, it has been said that the government had given information about this hashtag to Twitter as part of the legal process, but its inflammatory and misleading information was allowed to broadcast the content related to this hashtag on Twitter.
On behalf of the government, Twitter was also reminded of the steps taken during the violence in the Capitol Hill of the US when Twitter closed the account of many people including President Donald Trump of America.
The government also compared the Capitol Hill violence and the developments on India's Red Fort on 26 January and accused Twitter of adopting double standards.
Secretary Ajay Sahni has also told the Twitter representatives that the information related to a toolkit has come out that it is clear that there was a plan to launch a campaign related to the farmer movement on social media against India abroad.
The government told Twitter, 'Misuse of Twitter is unacceptable for such campaigns designed to create disharmony and unrest in India. Twitter should take strict action by following the laws against such campaigns going against India.
Twitter posted a blog reply
Earlier, on the instructions of the central government to block more than a thousand Twitter accounts, micro-blogging website 'Twitter' has responded on Wednesday.
Twitter has written in one of its official blogs that the company has suspended over 500 Twitter accounts that were clearly in the category of spam and were misusing the platform. The company has taken action against hundreds of accounts violating the rules. Especially against those who were full of violence, abuse, and threats. Along with this, the company has also stopped some trends that violate the rules.
Micro-blogging website Twitter has also written in this blog that 'the company is in favor of freedom of expression and recently the basis on which the central government asked to close Twitter accounts is not following Indian laws'.
According to Twitter, during this period, he got some orders from the Central Government under section 69A of the IT Act, which has requested to suspend many Twitter accounts.
The company wrote that 'We had temporarily followed two of these orders, which asked for emergency account blocking, but later we reinstated them as they were found to be following Indian law. When its information was given to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, they handed us a notice of failure to comply with the instructions.
Referring to the incident of 26 January 2021, Twitter wrote that 'Our Global team provided 24/7 coverage during this period and acted on all content, tweets and accounts judicially and fairly, as it violated Twitter rules Was doing.'
Twitter India has written in this blog that 'this action has been taken in the last ten days'.
What action has Twitter taken so far?
Twitter has written in its blog that 'tweets which had harmful content will now be seen less because the company has reduced their visibility. The company has taken action against more than 500 Twitter accounts suggested by the central government, most of which have been permanently suspended.
"Besides, the company has stopped some of the accounts underlined by the government in India on Wednesday itself. However, these accounts will remain available outside India as we do not believe that we have against these accounts as per Indian law Action was taken. We are in favor of freedom of expression and keeping this in view we have not taken any action against the accounts of media persons, journalists, social workers, and politicians. "
'Respect for every point of view'
According to Twitter India, the company has presented its reply to the central government on 10 February and has made all these arguments.
The company wrote in its blog, "We believe transparency is very important to build public dialogue and mutual trust. It is very important for us that people understand how we trim content on our platform and How to communicate with governments all over the world. "
"It can be seen in our transparency report what governments request from us and how we work globally."
The company has written in its blog that "In the current era, free internet and freedom of expression is constantly under threat. In the last few weeks, we wanted to update closely on the news of violence in India and take our rules and principles seriously Were trying to implement them. "
The company wrote that "Twitter's presence is so that we can reach the voice of our users to more and more people. Keeping this in mind, we are constantly improving our services so that everyone - whatever their viewpoint is." - Be able to boldly join a public dialogue. "
What did the Indian government say on Twitter?
On Tuesday, the news agency PTI quoted sources as saying that the Indian government has ordered Twitter to close 1178 Twitter accounts related to alleged Pakistan and Khalistan supporters who have been spreading misinformation and provocative content about the farmers' protests.
It was told that the Ministry of Information Technology shared a list of these Twitter accounts on February 4. These accounts were identified by security agencies as pro-Khalistan or Pakistan-backed and foreign-owned accounts, which threaten public order during the peasant movement.
Earlier, the government had ordered Twitter to remove those 'handles' and 'hashtags' which claimed that the farmer massacre was being planned. The government had said that such misinformation and inflammatory material would affect public order.
According to local media reports, the central government also warned Twitter of punitive action if it failed to comply with the instructions.
The IT ministry is also said to be indirectly unhappy with the recent likes of some Twitter tweets by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in support of farmer protests.
Meanwhile, a Twitter spokesperson said in his e-mail response that 'Twitter follows the principles of empowerment and transparency of public dialogue. If we receive a legitimate legal request about potentially illegal content on Twitter, we review it under both Twitter rules and local law. If the content violates Twitter's rules, the content will be removed.
Along with this, he said that 'if it determines to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction but is not in violation of the rules of Twitter, then we can only prevent access to the content in that place. In all cases, we inform the account holder directly so that he knows that we have received a legal order related to the account.
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