Taking very serious note of non-compliance of Twitter to government orders, the Government of India reminded Twitter of the Indian Constitution and the sanctity of the Indian laws Wednesday.
In the wake of the hooliganism in the name of farmers protest on Republic Day, the government has asked Twitter to remove/block handles which were propagating false news with the hashtag of ‘farmer genocide’.
In response, Twitter withheld some accounts but refused to comply fully saying “… we have not taken any action on accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians.”
The government expressed its displeasure saying “Spreading misinformation using an incendiary and baseless hashtag referring to ‘farmer genocide’ at a time when such irresponsible content can provoke and inflame the situation is neither journalistic freedom nor freedom of expression as envisaged under Article 19 of the Constitution of India.”
It further noted the government “…expressed (its) deep disappointment to Twitter leadership about the manner in which Twitter has unwillingly, grudgingly and with great delay complied with the substantial parts of the order.
When riots happened in Capitol Hill just before President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Twitter had permanently suspended President Trump’s account. It took similar action against other accounts too.
The government “expressed dissatisfaction over Twitter’s differential treatment in the two incidents.” It noted how in Bharat’s case, Twitter sided “not with ‘freedom of expression’ but rather with those who seek to abuse such freedom and provoke disturbance to public order”.
Explaining how freedom of speech and expression is intrinsic to Bharat’s values, the government noted “India has a robust mechanism for protection of freedom of speech and expression that is very elaborately explained as fundamental Rights under Article 19 (1) of the Constitution of India. But freedom of expression is not absolute and it is subject to reasonable restrictions as mentioned in Article 19 (2) of the Constitution of India.”
It also reminded Twitter that the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has upheld it from time to time.
It also emphasised the social media company is free to formulate its own set of rules like other companies do, but “Indian laws which are enacted by the Parliament of India must be followed irrespective of Twitter’s own rules and guidelines.”
Former BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav termed this attitude of Twitter “arrogant double standards”. He tweeted “Twitter’s refusal to suspend accounts with provocative and false hashtags like ‘farmers genocide’ is arrogant double standards. They blocked many such hashtag accounts in the US after Jan 6. Freedom of expression is safe in India but doesn’t include spreading provocative falsehoods.
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