‘Must respect Indian laws, democratic institutions’: Govt registers strong protest in meeting with Twitter

The government on Wednesday held a meeting with Twitter, flagging several concerns relating to recent happenings. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Secretary told Twitter representatives registered strong protest over inaction despite the government’s order directing the platform to remove tweets and accounts using hashtag related to ‘farmer genocide’ and accounts supported by Khalistan sympathizers, backed by Pakistan. 

Taking up the issue of using a hashtag on ‘farmer genocide’ with Twitter executives, Secretary expressed strong displeasure on the way Twitter acted after an emergency order was issued to remove this hashtag and content related to that. 

“Spreading misinformation using an incendiary and baseless hashtag referring to  ‘farmer genocide’ at a time when such irresponsible content can provoke and inflame the situation is neither journalistic freedom nor freedom of expression as envisaged under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. Despite the attention of Twitter being drawn to such content by the Government through a lawful process, the platform allowed the content with this hashtag to continue, which was extremely unfortunate,” the Ministry of Electronics & IT said in a press statement late Wednesday. 

Secretary reminded Twitter about the action taken by Twitter during the Capitol Hill episode in the USA and compared that with the disturbance in Red Fort in India and its aftermath. He expressed dissatisfaction over Twitter’s differential treatment in the two incidents. “A deep sense of disappointment at seeing Twitter side not with ‘freedom of expression’ but rather with those who seek to abuse such freedom and provoke disturbance to public order, was conveyed to the Twitter representative,” the ministry said. 

Secretary also mentioned that revelations around a certain “Toolkit” has made it evident that a strong social media campaign was planned in a foreign country around farmers protest, the release read. Misuse of Twitter’s platform for execution of such campaigns designed to create disharmony and unrest in India is unacceptable and Twitter must take strong action against such well-coordinated campaigns against India, through compliance with the applicable law of the land, it said. 

The ministry said that lawfully passed orders are binding on any business entity. “They must be obeyed immediately. If they are executed days later, it becomes meaningless,” it said. 

Secretary expressed his deep disappointment to Twitter leadership about the manner in which Twitter has “unwillingly”, “grudgingly” and with great delay complied with the substantial parts of the order. “He took this opportunity to remind Twitter that in India, its Constitution and laws are supreme. It is expected that responsible entities not only reaffirm but remain committed to compliance to the law of land,” the ministry said. 

The government conveyed to the Twitter leadership that “the manner in which Twitter officially allows fake, unverified, anonymous and automated bot accounts to be operated on its platform, raises doubts about its commitment to transparency and healthy conversation on this platform.”

Meanwhile, Twitter leadership affirmed their commitment towards following Indian laws and rules, the release said, adding that they also expressed their continuing commitment towards building their services in India. They have also requested for better engagement between Government of India and Twitter’s global team, it said.

READ MORE: Twitter requests for formal dialogue over ban on accounts, Govt responds via Koo

READ MORE: Withheld some accounts flagged by government: Twitter

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