Twitter's allegation of 'intimidation tactics' by police totally baseless: Govt

New Delhi: The confrontation between Twitter and the Central government here escalated on Thursday after the social media giant released a statement early morning, saying it was concerned about the "police intimidation" the company and its employees in India were facing after it had tagged factually questionable posts by BJP leaders as "manipulated". The company had added that freedom of expression might be potentially threatened.

However, the Centre was quick to react and in hours, issued a statement calling Twitter's remarks "baseless and false", saying that it was not the prerogative of just a foreign private entity such as Twitter. In a hard-hitting statement, the Centre also said it was time the company "disabuses itself of grandiosity", bringing up its clashes with the company over the last few months.

This was the first official statement issued by the US-based social media company after over a dozen officers from Delhi Police's anti-terrorism unit Special Cell, descended upon its offices in Delhi and Gurugram to "serve a notice" for cooperation over the tweets.

The tweets in question had alleged that the Indian National Congress had created a purported "toolkit" to "defame the nation". Following this, multiple fact-checks revealed that the files alleged to be created by Congress were forged. Following this, Congress leaders had filed criminal complaints against BJP leaders in several states and Twitter tagged some of these tweets as "manipulated", including that of spokesperson Sambit Patra.

While Delhi Police had knocked on Twitter's doors, claiming it was probing the complaint filed by the Congress, the social media company on Thursday, reacting to the raids, said there might be a threat to their employees in India.

It went on to say: "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 social media company also criticised the new IT rules and regulations that it said "inhibit free, open public conversation".

In the new digital rules, social media companies like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter have been asked to identify within 36 hours the origin of a flagged message as well as conduct additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.

"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," it said.

According to Twitter, the company is 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 its users.

The microblogging platform said it was recently served with a non-compliance notice and has withheld a portion of the content identified in the blocking order under its 'Country Withheld Content policy'.

Twitter maintained that the content reported in the original order constitutes protected, legitimate free speech, under Indian and international law, and that it has formally communicated this to the government.

It added that the platform has not taken any action on verified accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians, in line with its principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression.

Twitter said it continues to accept grievances from users and law enforcement via its existing grievance redressal channel.

Following this, the Central government's statement was released on Koo, a local alternative to Twitter, in which it asserted that representatives of social media companies, including Twitter, "are and will always remain safe in India", and that there is "no threat to their personal safety and security". The ministry said India has a glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices dating back centuries.

Twitter's statement is an attempt to "dictate its terms" to the world's largest democracy, the ministry said, adding that through its actions and deliberate defiance, the company is seeking to undermine India's legal system.

Twitter refuses to comply with the very regulations in the Intermediary Guidelines on the basis of which it is claiming safe harbour protection from any criminal liability in India, the ministry contended.

It questioned Twitter on why it did not set up a robust mechanism of its own in India and said the company's officials in India routinely claimed that they have no authority and that "they and the people of India need to escalate everything to Twitter headquarter in the USA".

The purported commitment of Twitter to its Indian user base thus not only sounds hollow but completely self-serving, the ministry said.

"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 pointed out.

The ministry even asked Twitter to "stop beating around the bush" and comply with the laws of the land.

The government said although Twitter claimed that it is committed to people of India, that commitment has been "most invisible in recent times".

It said Twitter chose to show the geo-locations of certain locations in the Union Territory of Ladakh as part of China, and took several days to rectify "this blatant disrespect to India's sensitivity and territorial integrity".

The ministry also called out Twitter for the delay in taking action on its order to block provocative content that could impact public law and order, even though the company had been quick to act on similar instance during violence at US Capitol Hill.

The ministry said that Twitter's "lack of responsibility" had led to the rampant proliferation of fake and harmful content against India and Indians.

Interestingly, before the Centre's response to Twitter was made public, the Delhi Police issued a press release saying the company's statement was "obfuscatory, diversionary, and tendentious". It said the company was neither the police nor the judiciary to be ascertaining facts of an ongoing investigation.

It alleged the company had not complied with requests for information on why the tweets by the BJP leaders were tagged as "manipulated", going on to say: "While placing the cart before the horse, Twitter went ahead and declared that the toolkit was 'Manipulated Media'. This clearly demonstrates that Twitter Inc. was acquainted with the facts of the case and it had material information which was germane to the inquiry by a duly recognized law enforcement agency. Therefore, Twitter was asked, by way of multiple communications, to join the inquiry to provide the information it possesses."

Meanwhile, INC leader Rajeev Gowda has said it is not legal for Delhi Police to proceed with this probe as the Chhattisgarh Police is already investigating it and since they are pursuing the matter there, they need not do so with police in the Capital.