Against the backdrop of its ongoing face-off with the Centre and the Delhi Police, Twitter on Thursday expressed displeasure on the recent raid at its offices in Delhi and Gurugram saying it was concerned with the “recent events” regarding its employees in the country and “the potential threat to freedom of expression” for its users.
In a statement and in a series of tweets, Twitter said certain provisions of new IT rules in India are against the open public conversations and wish to have a constructive dialogue with the Indian Government.
The microblogging site expressed displeasure on the recent raid at its offices in Delhi and Gurugram.
“But just as we do around the world, we will continue to be strictly guided by principles of transparency, a commitment to empowering every voice on the service, and protecting freedom of expression and privacy under the rule of law. Right now, we are concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serve,”said Twitter’s Policy Division.
We, alongside many in civil society in India and around the world, have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global terms of service, as well as with core elements of the new IT rules, said Twitter’s Policy Division.
“We plan to advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free, open public conversation. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian Government and believe it is critical to adopt a collaborative approach. We believe that it is the collective responsibility of elected officials, industry, and civil society to safeguard the interests of the public,” it added.
Apart from its concerns over the police visit, Twitter also said the company was concerned that one person, the chief compliance officer, was being made criminally liable for all the content on the platform.
“The requirement of proactive monitoring and a near blanket authority to the Government and its agencies to seek information about users represented a dangerous overreach, which was inconsistent with democratic principles followed in countries, the company said.
In January and February, Twitter had initially refused to take down certain tweets about farmer protests flagged by the IT Ministry for allegedly “spreading misinformation” and having the potential to “lead to imminent violence affecting public order situation in the country”.
The latest flashpoint was when BJP and Congress started accusing each other about the origin of an alleged Toolkit to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Reacting to this incident, Twitter had classified BJP leader Sambit Patra’s tweets as “manipulated media” category.