Remove ‘manipulated media’ tag, says govt

NEW DELHI: The ministry of electronics and information technology has sent a strongly worded notice to microblogging platform Twitter, for affixing the manipulated media tag to “tweets made by Indian political leaders with reference to a toolkit created to undermine, derail and demean the efforts of the Government against the Covid-19 pandemic”.

An official familiar with the matter said that in its communication, the ministry has stated that a complaint has already been made by one of the parties concerned before local law enforcement, and the veracity of the toolkit is under investigation.

The ministry has stated that Twitter’s decision to use the manipulated media tag appears “prejudged and prejudiced”. “While the local law enforcement agency is undertaking the investigation to determine the veracity of the ‘tookit’, Twitter has unilaterally drawn a conclusion in this matter and arbitrarily tagged it as ‘Manipulated Media’,” the ministry has stated, said the official. “Such tagging by Twitter appears prejudged, prejudiced and a deliberate attempt to colour the investigation by local law enforcement agency.” Twitter declined to comment. Twitter’s policies, however, clearly state that it can use “deceptively altered media”. “We may label Tweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated. In addition, you may not share deceptively altered media on Twitter in ways that mislead or deceive people about the media’s authenticity where threats to physical safety or other serious harm may result,” states the company’s policy.

The government’s directive comes barely hours after Twitter tagged a May 18 post by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra as “manipulated media”. In the post, Patra alleged that the Congress circulated a document that outlined ways to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP alleged the toolkit was aimed at building a biased narrative over the Centre’s handling of the second wave of Covid-19, and the Central Vista project. Many top BJP leaders, including its chief JP Nadda and Union ministers Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Hardeep Puri, amplified Patra’s tweet.

The Congress accused the BJP of concocting the document on Covid-19 to defame the party. It wrote to Twitter on Thursday seeking action against Patra and BJP leaders for “grossly misusing” the platform. The Congress accused the BJP of indulging in “largescale dissemination of false information”, which “has the potential to cause social unrest in country”.

In February, Twitter was locked in a rare confrontation with the Union government after being given orders to block over 1,300 links -- entire profiles as well as posts -- for alleged incitement during the January 26 farm protestlinked violence. The company complied partially, saying that the orders were not consistent with the law, prompting the Centre as well as legal experts to accuse it of ignoring the rule of law.

Internet Freedom Foundation trustee Apar Gupta said: “A threshold concern arises with respect to the legal power that has been used given that the information technology act may not contain such powers. The directions, if any, need to be clearly anchored within existing law, which is right now, not present. It also raises concerns given that platforms have been asked by MEITY barely two to three backs to contain disinformation regarding the pandemic,” Gupta said.

THE MINISTRY SAYS THE MANIPULATED MEDIA TAG APPEARS ‘PREJUDGED AND PREJUDICED’