Fact-checker whose agenda is to hate Modi can't be fact-checker: R S Prasad on Twitter's 'manipulated media' tag

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad came down heavily on social media companies, saying they must fall in line with the laws of the land amid the Centre’s push to enforce new Information Technology (IT) rules that aim to make social media companies more answerable to the government. He also slammed Twitter for its recent decision to tag BJP leader Sambit Patra's post on Congress' alleged "toolkit" as a "manipulated media", saying that the social media giant should not be biased.

The Government of India has asked social media companies like Twitter and Facebook to comply with new IT rules that include appointing grievance and nodal officers based in India to aid law enforcement officials as and when required. The new rules also require the companies to reveal the origin of posts that could stir trouble.

"The government only wants to know the origin of messages that lead to violence, riots, terrorism, rape, and threat to national security, among others, in the interest of checking misuse of social media," the minster of Electronics and Information Technology said in an interview with India Today.

DH Deciphers | Social media rules: Is it govt vs WhatsApp or govt vs you?

“As the law minister, I want to say to all social media companies that India’s digital sovereignty will not be compromised at any cost,” Prasad said in the interview.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp had filed a lawsuit against the government, claiming it would have to break encryption and endanger individual privacy rights to comply with the government’s new guidelines. The government’s move has also stoked fears that new regulations could eventually be used to clamp down on free speech and criticism against the Centre.

Those fears have been further reinforced by Delhi police’s recent visit to the Indian head office of microblogging platform Twitter in connection with the social network’s decision to tag a Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson’s post on Congress' alleged "Covid-19 toolkit" as “manipulated media”.

Prasad slammed the decision, saying the government was not afraid of criticism but raised questions on the intentions of Twitter’s fact-checkers.

“…a fact-checker whose agenda is to hate Modi cannot be a fact-checker,” Prasad said in the interview. “We welcome criticism. Our Prime Minister has been receiving criticism from across the globe since 2001. But social media companies cannot promote only one side.”

“As an American profit-making company, do business in India by all means. But follow India’s laws and Constitution. Our Parliament and institutions are just as important as any other nation’s,” Prasad added, asserting that social media companies readily supplied data on the origin of messages if requested by the US or UK governments in cases related to terrorism.