The Twitter app loads on an iPhone in this illustration photo taken in Los Angeles, California.
Mike Blake | Reuters
India chided Twitter for not immediately following up on 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 Department of Electronics and Information Technology, virtually met with Twitter’s vice president for global public policy, Monique Meche, and deputy general adviser, Jim Baker on Wednesday.
“The secretary expressed deep disappointment to Twitter’s leadership at how Twitter has unwittingly, reluctantly and with great delay complied with the substantial parts of the order,” the government said in a statement after the meeting.
India ordered Twitter to delete more than 1,100 accounts and posts that, according to Reuters, are spreading misinformation about farmers protesting new agricultural reforms.
Last month, reports said protesters clashed with authorities, resulting in hundreds of injuries and one death. Local media reported that authorities have filed charges against journalists and a high-profile opposition MP for tweets about the death, but their arrests have been postponed by the Supreme Court for the time being.
(Secretary Sawhney) took this opportunity to remind Twitter that in India the constitution and laws are the highest.
Statement by the Government of India
In a public blog post Before the Wednesday meeting, Twitter said it had only partially complied with the orders. Last week, the social media site temporarily blocked some of the accounts at the request of the government, but said it subsequently restored access “in a way that we believe was consistent with Indian law.”
The government statement stated that New Delhi considers the hashtag on “peasant genocide” to be incendiary and groundless because it was used to spread misinformation about the protests.
It also characterized some of the accounts it wants to be removed as being “backed by Khalistan sympathizers and backed by Pakistan”. The government has not provided specific evidence for those claims in its statement.
“(Secretary Sawhney) took this opportunity to remind Twitter that in India the constitution and laws are the highest. It is expected that responsible entities will not only reaffirm but also remain committed to complying with the constitution,” the report said. statement.
Twitter explained in its blog post that it had taken steps to reduce the visibility of hashtags containing malicious content and suspended more than 500 accounts involved in “obvious examples of platform manipulation and spam.”
Other accounts identified in the government lockout orders are not available in the country but can be accessed from outside India. The company added that it does not believe the actions it was ordered to take are in accordance with Indian law and declined to limit the accounts of journalists, activists and politicians.
“In accordance with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have taken no action against accounts consisting of news media entities, journalists, activists and politicians,” Twitter said in the blog post, adding: “ thus, in our opinion, would be a violation of their fundamental right to freedom of expression under Indian law. “
The IT ministry secretary told Twitter that it is welcome to do business in India, but that it still has to follow Indian laws, regardless of the social media company’s own rules and guidelines, according to the government statement.
According to the German data company Statista, India is Twitter’s third largest market after the US and Japan and has more than 17 million users there since January.
The current confrontation with the government places the American company in a situation where it must juggle between advocating for its users’ right to free speech and complying with local laws. Reuters reported that Twitter’s top lobbyist in India, Mahima Kaul, has resigned as the company grapples with the growing public relations crisis.
On the other hand, Indian government officials are promoting a homegrown Twitter alternative called Koo App, and local media reported an increase in the number of users on that site. The IT ministry promoted its own account on the new platform on Twitter.