Amid a standoff with social media giant Twitter over the new IT Rules, the central government on Thursday accused Twitter of lying and said it has no “locus in dictating” India’s legal policies.
The government said “Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land, instead of attempting to “dictate terms to the world’s largest democracy”.
In a statement the IT ministry said that power to formulate laws is the sole prerogative of the state and Twitter has no locus standi on the matter.
“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 should India’s legal policy framework should be,” said the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology in a statement.
Replying to Twitter’s statement as “baseless”, the Central Government said it’s “an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies”.
The Centre also assured Twitter and other social media platforms that their representatives are and will always remain safe in India and there is no threat to their personal safety and security.
Stressing protecting freedom of speech is the “commitment of the world’s largest democracy”, the government said it “respects the right of people to ask questions and also criticise on these social media platforms, including on Twitter”.
The Delhi Police also issued a statement against and said the statements made by twitter is “mendacious” and “devised to seek sympathy”.
It is to be noted that the development comes after Twitter earlier in the day expressed concerns over the “potential threat to freedom of expression and intimidation tactics by the police”.
