Remove 'manipulated media' tag on 'toolkit' tweet, Centre tells Twitter
The Centre on Friday objected to Twitter using the “Manipulated Media” tag for national spokesperson Sambit Patra's tweets on the 'toolkit' allegedly used by the Congress to defame the Modi government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in its strongly worded communication asked Twitter to remove the ''Manipulated Media'' tag as the matter was pending before law enforcement agency.
The IT Ministry said that the investigation would determine the veracity of the content, not Twitter.
The government also asked Twitter not to interfere in the investigation process. "When the matter is pending before the law enforcement agency, Twitter unilaterally chose to go ahead and designate certain tweets as 'Manipulated', pending investigation. This action not only dilutes the credibility of Twitter but also puts a question mark on the status of Twitter as an “Intermediary”, the Government said in the communication.
"The government also asked Twitter to remove the 'Manipulated Media' tags affixed prejudicially to certain tweets in recent days in the interests of fairness and equity," a senior official in the Ministry said.
Twitter on Thursday labelled as ''Manipulated Media'' a tweet by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on the alleged toolkit prepared by Congress to target the Modi government.
Alleging that documents used by Patra were fake, the Congress on Thursday wrote to Twitter to remove tweets by BJP leaders.
According to the policy of Twitter, content posted on its handle may be labelled as ‘manipulated media’ or removed if the company has a valid reason to believe that media, or the context in which media are presented, is “significantly and deceptively altered or manipulated”.
Earlier, the government had issued notices to Twitter to remove several inflammatory tweets related to the government's handling of Covid-19, which the IT Ministry had flagged saying it was fake news.