‘Seeking dialogue with minister, safety of staff key’
THE COMPANY SAID IT HAS SOUGHT A MEETING WITH THE MINISTER AND THAT IT BELIEVES IN OPEN AND FREE EXCHANGE OF INFO
NEW DELHI: Social media company Twitter said on Monday that it has reached out to electronics and information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad for a formal dialogue and that it had shared an update with the government after it was sent a notice for not complying with an order to restrict access to some accounts.
Last week, the company restored access to 257 profiles it had temporarily blocked after an order from the government, setting up a rare confrontation with the ministry. The government later sent a notice saying Twitter was not in a position to judge the order and that it was an intermediary liable to follow directions as per the law, which could include penal provisions.
“Safety of our employees is a top priority for us at Twitter. We continue to be engaged with the government of India from a position of respect and have reached out to the honourable minister for a formal dialogue. An acknowledgement to the receipt of the non-compliance notice has also been formally communicated,” a spokesperson said.
It also indicated that its position on the government’s request has not changed. “We strongly believe that the open and free exchange of information has a positive global impact, and that the Tweets must continue to flow,” the spokesperson added.
“We review every report we receive from the government as expeditiously as possible, and take appropriate action regarding such reports while making sure we hold firm to our fundamental values and commitment to protecting the public conversation.”
People familiar with discussions at Twitter said the company was concerned of “undue penal action against its employees”. “There have been indications of possible penal action and Twitter makes its employees its top priority,” the person said, asking not to be named.
A government official said that no communication had been received so far from Twitter. “We are giving them time to take action. Otherwise, the government will have to consider its options.”
Last week’s confrontation began over an order to block accounts the government stated were alluding to the occurrence of a “farmer genocide”. The ministry of electronics and information technology asked the company to take down an additional 1,178 accounts that may “foment trouble” on February 4.
People familiar with Twitter’s policy said that that some of the accounts mentioned by the government may draw action for being in violation of the company’s rules and such requests are routinely received by the microblogging site. “Others will get an alert that a legal demand against their account, then the company will analyse if there’s been a violation,” this person said. The alerts were likely to be issued over Monday.
According to the Twitter transparency report released last month, the company received 2,800 legal demands from January 2020 to June 2020. Demands were made against 13,200 accounts, of which the company withheld only 17, while 1,200 others were found to be violating Twitter rules.
The directions to block the 1,178 accounts were sent to the microblogging site at least three days ago; a second official familiar with the matter said on Monday. “Similar kinds of accounts, as the 257 flagged earlier, were identified,” this official said, asking not to be named.
“Some of these seem to bots, some propped by other countries. They all aim to foment trouble and unsettle the situation.”
The directions have been issued under section 69 (A) of the IT Act that allows the government to take action against posts and accounts that may pose a threat to public order.
A third official stated that the accounts were flagged by security agencies as “accounts of Khalistan sympathizers or backed by Pakistan and operating from foreign territories and causing threat to public order in view of the ongoing farmers protests in some parts of India”.