'Twitter needs to comply with the law of the land,' says govt on IT rules

'Twitter's claims are an attempt to dictate its terms to the world's largest democracy,' says Centre

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on Thursday responded to Twitter's statement expressing concern over the "potential threat to freedom of expression in India and intimidation tactics by the police".

The government told the social media giant to "stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land".

The government said it strongly controverts the claims made by Twitter today in its press release. "India has a glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices dating back centuries."

"We condemn Twitter's statement as baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their follies."

In a fiery statement, the government said, "Twitter’s statement is an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy. Through its actions and deliberate defiance, Twitter seeks to undermine India’s legal system.

Earlier during the day, Twitter said it will comply with Indian laws but was concerned by “the use of intimidation tactics by the police”.

Twitter argued that the escalated content constituted legitimate free speech and yet, the platform was compelled to withhold in response to a non-compliance notice as not doing so poses penal consequences with many risks for Twitter employees.

The platform said it has been in regular dialogue with the IT Ministry to explain the nature of the content and why it should continue to be available on the service.

"Law making and policy formulations is the sole prerogative of the sovereign and Twitter is just a social media platform and it has no locus standi on dictating what should India's legal policy framework be," the government further said.

Reacting strongly to the allegations of threat to freedom of expression in India, the IT ministry said, "the government respects the right of people to ask questions and also criticise on the social media platforms including on Twitter. However, the only instance of scuttling free speech on Twitter is by Twitter itself and its opaque policies, as a result of which people's accounts are suspended and tweets deleted arbitrarily."

The government assured representatives of social media companies including Twitter that they will always remain safe in India and there is no threat to their personal safety and security. 

Twitter has urged the Ministry of Electronics and IT to publish these standard operating protocols on procedural aspects of compliance for public consultation and has sought a minimum of three months extension in order to implement the rules.

The social media giant said it continues to accept grievances from users and law enforcement via its existing grievance redressal channel.

The government claims new IT rules empower the ordinary users who become victims of defamation, morphed images, sexual abuse and the whole range of other abusive content in blatant violation of law, to seek redress.

"These Rules were finalised after widest possible consultations including with representatives of social media platforms."