Stop beating around the bush, comply with law of land: Centre to Twitter

The ministry slammed Twitter's statement on Thursday as an attempt to dictate terms to the world's largest democracy

Hitting out at microblogging platform Twitter, the Centre on Thursday said the US-based company is trying to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy.

Asking Twitter to comply with the laws of the land, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTY) said that "through its actions and deliberate defiance, Twitter seeks to undermine India’s legal system. Furthermore, Twitter refuses to comply with those very regulations in the Intermediary Guidelines on the basis of which it is claiming a safe harbour protection from any criminal liability in India."

Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land, said the government.

The government's strongly-worded statement came in the background of the Twitter earlier statement which termed police visiting its offices at Delhi and Gurugram to serve notices regarding the 'toolkit' case probe as an 'intimidation tactic".

Also read — Twitter says concerned about India staff safety after police visit

On Twitter expressing the safety of its employees in India, the government said, "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."

Earlier in the day, Twitter described new social media intermediary rules framed by the IT Ministry as a "dangerous overreach that is inconsistent with open, democratic principles."

Condemning the statement issued by Twitter, the government said it was "totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies".

Also read — Delhi Police hit back at Twitter in 'toolkit' case, say 'it is seeking dubious sympathy'

"Lawmaking and policy formulations are the sole prerogatives 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 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, but it is the commitment of the world’s largest democracy and its robust institutions," the statement said.

Read: BJP’s ‘toolkit’ case amounts to misuse of govt power

Earlier, taking a firm stand on new social media rules, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that WhatsApp users have nothing to fear about new social media rules as they are designed to prevent abuse and misuse of platforms.

"The rules only empower the ordinary users of social media when they become victims of abuse and misuse," Prasad posted on microblogging platform Koo and also tweeted.

"Ordinary users of WhatsApp have nothing to fear about the new Rules. Its entire objective is to find out who started the message that led to the commissioning of specific crimes mentioned in the Rules," Prasad added.