Govt vs Twitter: Gloves come off as Centre says Twitter cannot dictate policy in India

The ongoing feud between the Government of India and social media giant Twitter intensified on Thursday with the Centre stating that Twitter cannot dictate India’s legal policy.

The gloves have come off in the war between the Government of India and social media giant Twitter. Responding to the statement made by the US-based company on Thursday, the Centre more or less read out the Riot Act with regard to Twitter’s unstated refusal to accept the new IT rules for social media intermediaries. Government fully recognises and respects the right of privacy. Ordinary users of WhatsApp have nothing to fear about the new Rules. Its entire objective is to find out who started the message that led to commissioning of specific crimes mentioned in the Rules. pic.twitter.com/VCVYkwiftG The government thundered, “Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land. Law-making and policy formulation is the sole prerogative of the sovereign and Twitter is just a social media platform. It has no locus in dictating what India’s legal policy framework should be. 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.” On Thursday morning, Twitter had indicated that it would stand its ground and had no plans as of now of complying with the IT rules that came into play on May 26. In what can be interpreted as a sign of things to come in the future, the government said it condemns the unfortunate statement issued by Twitter as “totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame India in order to hide their own follies.”