Twitter cries 'intimidation'; govt hits back, says follow the law

Company says it is concerned by 'recent events regarding employees in India'.

Amid a row between the government and social media companies over the new information technology rules, Twitter India on Thursday said it would “strive to comply” with the law but voiced concerns over “the use of intimidation tactics by the police” and “potential threat to freedom of expression”. 

The statement earned a sharp retort from the government, which termed it “an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy” and asked Twitter to stop “beating around the bush” and comply with the law.

“To keep our service available, we will strive to comply with applicable law in India. But just as we do around the world, we will continue to be strictly guided by principles of transparency, a commitment to empowering every voice on the service, and protecting freedom of expression and privacy under the rule of law,” said a Twitter spokesperson.

“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 spokesperson added. The statement came a couple of days after WhatsApp moved the Delhi High Court against the new IT rules dubbing it an invasion of privacy. 

Twitter’s comments received strongly worded counters from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Delhi Police. The Delhi Police described Twitter's statement as ‘mendacious’, while the ministry told Twitter that it had “no locus in dictating what India’s legal policy framework should be”.

Earlier in the day, IT & law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad took to Twitter to say the government welcomes criticism, including the right to ask questions. But by the evening, the government’s reply turned sharper, with MeitY saying: "Twitter’s statement is an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy."

The ministry further said the new IT rules were finalised after the "widest possible consultations, including with representatives of social media platforms" and "Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land. Law-making and policy formulations are the sole prerogative of the sovereign and Twitter is just a social media platform and it has no locus in dictating what India's legal policy framework should be”.

 The Delhi Police, in a separate statement, said Twitter was trying to gain "dubious sympathy," and should come forward to explain why it tagged some tweets as "manipulated media".  

"Twitter Inc, while placing the cart before the horse, 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 recognised law enforcement agency. Therefore, Twitter was asked, by way of multiple communications, to join the inquiry to provide the information it possesses," it said.

Its issue with Delhi Police:

The Delhi Police's Special Cell teams went to the offices of Twitter India in Delhi and Gurugram on Monday evening in connection with an ongoing matter of a toolkit allegedly made by the Congress, and tagging of some ruling party politicians' tweets as “manipulated media”. MeitY had earlier asked Twitter to take down the manipulated media tag. 

Meanwhile, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, published on February 25, also came into effect on May 25, which asks significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs) to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person for 24x7 coordination with law enforcement agencies, and a resident grievance officer.

 SSMIs must also be able to identify the first originator of problematic content that may harm the country's interests and several other provisions described in the rules. WhatsApp approached the Delhi High Court on May 25, the deadline for compliance, and said this provision would mean breaking end-to-end encryption on the platform. 

 A significant social media intermediary was defined as one with over 5 million registered users. This means all big technology firms like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and Google (YouTube) will have to comply with the new rules. This will also include Indian social media platforms like Koo, Chingari and Ropso.

 “We plan to advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free, open public conversation. 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 Twitter spokesperson said in the statement.

 Twitter has further raised concerns 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 customers, based on the new IT Rules.

 According to the microblogging platform and privacy advocates, these requirements represent “dangerous overreach”.

Several industry groupings have urged MeitY to extend the IT rules’ compliance deadline by six months to a year, and also publish standard operating protocols (SOPs) on procedural aspects of compliance for public consultation.

According to Twitter, 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. Under this policy, it can withhold certain content in a specific country, preventing the content from being visible in that country only. These will be visible outside the country.

The microblogging platform maintained that the reported content constitutes protected, legitimate free speech, under Indian and international law, but due to the law’s limited scope under Section 69A of the IT Act, it has limited scope to defend the content. Not doing so poses penal consequences with many risks for Twitter employees, it said.