Twitter alleges threat to free speech; it’s defying Indian laws, counters government

NEW DELHI: Twitter on Thursday accused the government of "dangerous overreach that is inconsistent with open, democratic principles", and alleged that it has been forced to "withhold" (block in India) portions of "legitimate free speech" on its platform over fears around the safety of its employees and threats of financial penalties.
While a statement did not elaborate on these tweets, sources indicated that these were related to the government’s request to pull down tweets related to farmer protests, some of which the Centre believed peddled anti-India sentiment, as well as some that were critical of the handling of the second coronavirus wave.

"We maintain that the content reported in the original order constitutes protected, legitimate free speech, under Indian and international law, and we have formally communicated this to the government… Yet, due to the law’s limited scope under Section 69A (of the IT Act) which gives limited room to an intermediary to defend the content, we have been compelled to withhold (block in India) in response to a non-compliance notice. Not doing so poses penal consequences with many risks for Twitter employees."

However, the spokesperson added that Twitter did not take any action on verified accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians "in keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression".
The statement came a day after the social media platform was deemed to be non-compliant with the new social media intermediary norms under which it is required to appoint designated officers to deal with grievances and compliance apart from having a mechanism to pull down content where individuals are maligned or there is sexually explicit matter.

Like February, when it complained about the safety of its employees, on Thursday, too, the micro-blogging platform took the same plea after Delhi Police landed at its headquarters a few days ago in connection with the toolkit probe, which has resulted in Twitter flagging posts by some BJP politicians as "manipulated media".
Twitter said there were concerns over "intimidation tactics" by police and was critical of the new IT rules.
The company said it is particularly worried over the requirement to make the compliance officer criminally liable for content on the platform, the mandate for proactive monitoring, and the "blanket authority to seek information" about customers. "This represents dangerous overreach that is inconsistent with open, democratic principles."
The company also expressed its displeasure over the new rules taking away the immunity of social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram over third-party content, and makes them liable for criminal and civil action.
While emphasising that it is "deeply committed" to India and that it will "strive to comply with the applicable law", the spokesperson said that the company plans to "advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free, open public conversation".
It said that the IT ministry should publish standard operating protocols on procedural aspects of compliance to the new IT rules and seek public consultation. Also, it sought an extension of three months in the implementation of the rules that came into force from May 26.
Only one scuttling free speech is Twitter: IT ministry
Hours after American microblogging giant Twitter accused the Indian government of using force and fear to block legitimate free speech, the IT ministry shot back, charging the company with deliberately subverting the law of the land and trying to "dictate" its terms even while using "opaque policies" to "arbitrarily" suspend user accounts and delete tweets.
"…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 government said, asking the company to "stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land".

The government said that "law-making and policy formulation is the sole prerogative of the sovereign and Twitter is just a social media platform, and it has no locus in dictating what should India’s legal policy framework should be".
Dismissing Twitter’s concerns related to the safety of its employees, the IT ministry said that representatives of social media companies, including Twitter, "are and will always remain safe in India and there is no threat to their personal safety and security".
The government accused Twitter of remaining silent on "fake and harmful content against India and Indians", including posts related to vaccine hesitancy or those that spoke of an "Indian variant" of the coronavirus.
The present war of words comes months after a controversy in February where the IT ministry and Twitter were at loggerheads over blocking of more than 1,400 users who the government accused of using inflammatory and unlawful language in the wake of the farmers’ protests. And over the past week, the fight further escalated over Twitter according "manipulated media" tag to certain tweets of BJP functionaries which claimed to show a "toolkit" purportedly prepared by Congress functionaries to defame the government’s Covid-19 relief efforts.
The government said India has a glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices dating back centuries. "Protecting free speech in India is not the prerogative of only a private, for-profit, foreign entity like Twitter… Twitter’s statement is an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy. Through its actions and deliberate defiance, Twitter seeks to undermine India’s legal system."
The government said Twitter has not empowered its local leadership in India, and has refused to appoint officers in line with requirements in the new IT rules for intermediaries. "Twitter representatives in India routinely claim that they have no authority and that they and the people of India need to escalate everything to the Twitter headquarters in the US… (it) is also the most reluctant to appoint an India-based grievance redressal officer and mechanism, chief compliance officer and nodal officer to whom its own users can complain when they are subjected to offensive tweets."
The IT ministry said the company has been unmindful of the concerns of the Indian government and the sensibilities of the public, including when it "chose to show the geo-location of certain locations in the Union territory of Ladakh as part of China".
"Twitter took several days, that too only after repeated reminders, to rectify this blatant disrespect to India’s sensitivity and territorial integrity."
The government said that the company refused to block content that provoked violence after the farmers agitation at Red Fort in Delhi, even though it took suo motu action after the violence at the US Capitol.