The Twitter app is loaded onto an iPhone in this photographic illustration taken in Los Angeles, California.
Mike Blake | Reuters
India scolded Twitter for not promptly following government orders to remove certain content and warned the social media giant that it must follow local laws to operate in the country.
Ajay Sawhney, secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, met virtually with Twitter’s vice president of global public policy, Monique Meche, and deputy general counsel, Jim Baker, on Wednesday.
“The secretary expressed his deep disappointment at Twitter’s leadership over the way that reluctantly, reluctantly and with great delay, Twitter fulfilled the substantial parts of the order,” the government said in a statement after the meeting.
India has ordered Twitter to remove more than 1,100 accounts and posts it claims are spreading misinformation about farmers protesting new agricultural reforms, Reuters reported.
Last month, reports said that protesters clashed with authorities, resulting in hundreds of injuries and one death. Local media reported that authorities had filed charges against journalists and a high-level opposition parliamentarian for tweets about the death, but his arrests have been suspended for the time being by the Supreme Court.
(Secretary Sawhney) took the opportunity to remind Twitter that in India, its Constitution and laws are paramount.
Statement by the Government of India
In a public blog post ahead of Wednesday’s meeting, Twitter said it only partially fulfilled the orders. Last week, the social media site temporarily blocked some of the government-mandated accounts, but said it later restored access “in a way that we believe is consistent with Indian law”.
The government statement said New Delhi found the hashtag on “farmer genocide” incendiary and baseless, claiming it was being used to spread misinformation about the protests.
He also characterized some of the reports he wants to withdraw as being “supported by Khalistan supporters and supported by Pakistan”. The government did not provide specific evidence for these allegations in its statement.
“(Secretary Sawhney) took the opportunity to remind Twitter that in India, its Constitution and laws are supreme. The responsible entities are expected not only to reaffirm, but to remain committed to compliance with the land law,” he added. the statement.
Twitter in its blog post explained that it has taken steps to reduce the visibility of hashtags with harmful content and has suspended more than 500 accounts that were involved in “clear examples of platform manipulation and spam”.
Other accounts identified in government blocking orders are not available in the country, but can be accessed from outside India. The company added that it does not believe that the actions it was instructed to take are consistent with Indian law and has refused to restrict reporting by journalists, activists and politicians.
“In accordance with our principles of protecting protected speech and freedom of expression, we take no action on accounts consisting of news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians,” said Twitter in the blog post, adding: “Do thus, we believe, it would violate your fundamental right to freedom of expression under Indian law. “
The IT ministry secretary told Twitter that he is welcome to do business in India, but must still follow Indian laws, regardless of the social media company’s own rules and guidelines, according to the government statement.
India is Twitter’s third largest market, behind the United States and Japan, and has more than 17 million users there in January, according to German data company Statista.
The current confrontation with the government puts the American company in a dilemma, where it has to juggle between defending its users’ right to free expression and complying with local laws. Reuters reported that India’s top Twitter lobbyist, Mahima Kaul, has resigned as the company faces its growing public relations crisis.
Indian government officials, on the other hand, are promoting a domestic alternative to Twitter, called the Koo App, and local media have reported an increase in the number of users of that site. The IT ministry promoted its own account on the new Twitter platform.