Standoff on IT rules as Twitter flags concerns
NEW DELHI: Twitter on Thursday raised concerns about “intimidation tactics by the police” and “core elements” of the new social media and intermediary guidelines, becoming the third internet giant to push back against the rules for digital companies framed by the government, which reacted strongly within hours to accuse Twitter of trying to “dictate terms to the world’s largest democracy”.
The exchange was the latest in a snowballing controversy over new guidelines that direct companies such as Twitter, Whatsaapp, Facebook ,and Google to regulate content, appoint officers who will be liable for compliance, and adopt features such as tracing of messages and voluntary user verification.
Twitter’s statement comes a day after Whatsapp challenged the Union electronics and technology ministry (Meity) guidelines in the Delhi high court. Before that, Facebook on Tuesday said there were “a few issues (that) need more engagement with the government”.
On Thursday, Google’s chief executive Sundar Pichai, in a virtual press conference, said the company was committed to complying with local laws and to working with governments around the world, while adding that a free and open internet was “foundational” .
The government defended the rules afresh as the pushback mounted. Union minister for electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said the guidelines were designed to empower citizens and prevent the “abuse and misuse” of social media.
But Twitter saw it differently. “To keep our service available, we will strive to comply with applicable law in India. 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,” the company said.
“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,” it added, ostensibly referring to a visit by Delhi Police officials on May 25 to serve the company a notice in a separate matter. Twitter added that it plans “to advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free, open public conversation”.
Meity responded to Twitter’s stand with a statement, saying: “Lawmaking and policy formulation is the sole prerogative 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.”
It added that the government “also wishes to emphatically assure that 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,” before calling Twitter’s position as “totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies”.
The controversial intermediary and digital platform guidelines came into complete effect on May 25, and major social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Whatsapp, are yet to comply with all the clauses.
In a petition to the Delhi high court, Whatsapp said the new rules are unconstitutional as they violate the fundamental right to privacy. The company in particular referred to the requirement to trace the originator of a message if ordered, something it said will not be possible without breaking the endto-end encryption that keeps communications sure.
Google’s Pichai struck a more conciliatory note.
“It’s obviously early days and our local teams are very engaged... we always respect local laws in every country we operate in and we work constructively. We have clear transparency reports, when we comply with government requests, we highlight that in our transparency reports,” Pichai said, according to PTI.
But he added that, as a company, Google has been “very clear about the values of a free and open internet and the benefits it brings and we advocate for it”, and said it respects legislative processes and in cases where it needs to push back, it does so.
“It’s a balance we have struck around the world,” he said.
Minister Prasad suggested that the changes were all about users. “The new rules require the social media companies to set up an India based grievance redressal officer, compliance officer and nodal officer so that millions of users of social media who have a grievance get a forum for its redressal,” Prasad posted on Koo, the app which has come up as the Indian alternative to Twitter.
The government on Wednesday wrote to all social media companies to send details of their compliance officer, nodal contact person, resident grievance officer and physical contact address in India, as soon as possible. The deadline to do this ended on Tuesday.
At least five industry bodies, that represent the interests of social media platforms, wrote to the ministry to seek an extension to implement the new social media and intermediary guidelines, with some seeking a yearlong extension and broad standard operating procedures ahead of the May 25 deadline, according to representations seen by Hindustan Times.
The bodies were Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICC), U.s.-india Business Council (USIBC), the Us-india Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and Asia Internet Coalition (AIC).
The statement by Twitter also seemed to be in response to a visit by the Delhi Police to its offices on May 24 in order to serve notices relating to an inquiry into an alleged “toolkit” that defames the government. The police has asked the company to disclose evidence on the basis of which it has tagged as “manipulated media” posts made by several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
The posts show the toolkit document purportedly on a Congress letterhead, which the opposition party says has been forged. The position has also been taken by several fact-checkers.
Delhi Police said Twitter’s position was “not only mendacious but designed to impede a lawful inquiry by a private enterprise”. “The entire conduct by Twitter Inc, including its Indian entity, in the last few days has been obfuscatory, diversionary and tendentious,” the police said, asking the company to cooperate in an inquiry into toolkit document.