Govt dismisses Twitter’s claims, asks not to dictate terms to "world’s largest democracy"

Stating that Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush, the Indian government on Thursday asked the micro-blogging social media platform to comply with the laws of the land.

Twitter in its official communique had sought a ‘constructive dialogue’ and ‘collaborative approach’ from the government of a sovereign democratic republic to ‘safeguard the interests of the people while seeking the extension of three months to comply with the new IT rules in India.

Strongly controverting the claims made by Twitter, the government questioned, “If Twitter is so committed then why it did not set up such a mechanism in India on its own and its statement is an attempt to dictate terms to the world’s largest democracy, undermining India’s legal system.”

The government earlier this year had asked all the social media platforms including Twitter to appoint an India-based grievance redressal officer and mechanism, chief compliance officer, and nodal officer to whom its own users can make complains to, when they are subjected to offensive tweets.

“These rules were finalised after the widest possible consultations including with representatives of social media platforms. There are also various judicial orders by various courts including the Supreme Court of India directing the government to take appropriate steps. There are also several Parliamentary debates and recommendations to take appropriate measures,” it further said in a statement. 

“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 in dictating what India’s legal policy framework should be,” the government said further rebutting the claims made by the social media platform.

"The central government 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. However, it condemns the unfortunate statement issued by Twitter as totally baseless, false, and an attempt to defame India to hide its own follies," the government statement said.