Tussle intensifies: Twitter, govt at odds over blocking
NEW DELHI: Twitter on Wednesday said that it complied partially with the government’s requests to block access to accounts, but let others — particularly those by journalists, activists and politics — remain since the directions were “not consistent with Indian law”, prompting the government to express “disappointment” during a meeting with top executives of the social media company later in the day.
Twitter’s blog, which gave details of its actions, said: “...we do not believe that the actions we have been directed to take are consistent with Indian law.” And, it added, “in keeping with our principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression, we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians. To do so, we believe, would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law.”
The statement, released on Wednesday morning, prompted an initial response from the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) — significantly, on Koo, a home-made social media website meant to rival Twitter — and appeared to signal an escalation of a confrontation brewing for over a week.
Throughout the day, several
government officials expressed dismay with Twitter’s actions, echoing remarks from last week when the government said the company was not in a position to judge its directions and had to follow them.
Representatives from the ministry and Twitter’s global policy and safety teams met later, where the Meity “secretary expressed his deep disappointment” about Twitter’s response. “He took this opportunity to remind Twitter that in India, its Constitution and laws are supreme. It is expected that responsible entities not only reaffirm but remain committed to compliance to the law of land,” Meity said in a statement after the meeting in the evening.
A government official, who asked not to be named, said Twitter cannot pick and choose which accounts to block. A second official, who asked not to be named, however, was more reconciliatory, saying that the company appeared to have “taken down 95% of the accounts and posts” the government flagged.
HT reviewed Twitter’s disclosures to the Lumen database — a nonprofit repository meant to track online censorship — on the Indian government’s requests and found that the company had removed 702 URLs in all. These included posts as well as accounts.
The government is believed to have handed over a list of 1,300 URLs (for accounts as well as posts) in its two orders.
The first government official quoted above said: “We respect freedom of expression, but it comes with reasonable restrictions. Hesitatingly taking action or begrudgingly taking down accounts is unacceptable.” The government, this person said, was seeking legal options.