Twitter not engaged in anti-national work: Govt

NEW DELHI: Twitter has not engaged in any anti-national activity and no FIR has been filed against the social media company as the “public order” and the “police” are state subjects, the central government said on Thursday.

The Centre was responding to a question posed by Congress Rajya Sabha MP Dr Amee Yajnik on “whether organizations like Twitter had acted against the rules in recent times” and, if they had, what action did the government take against them.

She also asked whether Twitter was engaged in any “anti-national work” or has any FIR been lodged against the microblogging site by the government.

In his reply, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar invoked the newly introduced Information Technology (Intermediary

Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which took effect from May 26, 2021.

“Complaints reported against Twitter are dealt with by the respective Law Enforcement Authorities of States/union Territories. Meity (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) is not involved in the filing of any FIR against Twitter.”

On a question about Twitter’s engagement into any “anti-national work,” the minister said:

“No such action of Twitter is brought to the notice of Meity.”

The central government’s statement comes as Twitter has been in the eye of controversy over the past few months. On May 21, it labelled a tweet by Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra “manipulated media” prompting a Delhi Police investigation. The special cell of Delhi Police questioned Manish Maheshwari, managing director of Twitter in India, in late May.