Twitter Concerned For Staff Safety, Alleges ‘Intimidation Tactics’ By Indian Police

Tensions between Twitter and the Indian government continue to rise, after the platform made an extraordinary intervention this week.

On Monday Indian police visited Twitter’s office in New Delhi, over its labelling of a tweet by a governing party spokesman as “manipulated media.”

But Twitter has hit back and labelled the visit as a police ‘intimidation tactic’ and reportedly said that it is now concerned for the safety of its staff in the country.

Indian tensions

Tensions have been growing between Twitter and the Indian government over the past few months.

In February Twitter refused an official request to remove over a thousand accounts from its platform.

The Indian government Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested that San Francisco-based Twitter remove more than 1,100 accounts and posts, which it alleged were spreading misinformation about widespread protests by farmers against new agricultural laws.

However, Twitter refused, saying a government order to remove some accounts was not consistent with Indian law.

But in late April Twitter did remove a number of tweets critical of the Indian government’s response to a new wave of Coronavirus infections that engulfed the country, killing hundreds of thousands of people.

Critics are concerned that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is trying to silence criticism, including of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Twitter is widely used by Prime Minister Modi, his cabinet ministers and other leaders to communicate with the public.

Police ‘visit’

On Monday, Indian police visited Twitter’s office in New Delhi to serve a notice directing it to answer questions about its tagging of a tweet by government spokesman as manipulated.

The tweet had been posted on 18 May by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra, and it reportedly included a picture of a document that he said was created by the country’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress.

The picture reportedly listed tips on how to discredit Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Modi government’s began an investigation when Twitter labelled this tweet as manipulated media.

Intimidation tactics

But Twitter has hit back on Thursday and reportedly said it has “concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police”.

Twitter also said Thursday it was worried about the safety of its staff in India, CNBC reported.

“We, alongside many in civil society in India and around the world, have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service,” Twitter reportedly said.

On Wednesday, WhatsApp filed a lawsuit in Delhi High Court against the Indian Government, arguing that new government rules that require it to make messages “traceable” to external parties are unconstitutional and undermine the fundamental right to privacy.

Tom Jowitt

Tom Jowitt is a leading British tech freelancer and long standing contributor to Silicon UK. He is also a bit of a Lord of the Rings nut...

Recent Posts

TikTok US Sales ‘Hit $16bn’, ByteDance Nears Meta In World Revenues

TikTok reportedly brought in $16bn in US last year, while parent ByteDance made $120bn worldwide,…

18 hours ago

Bankman-Fried Deserves Up To 50 Years In Jail, Prosecutors Say

Ahead of sentencing prosecutors argue ex-FTX boss Sam Bankman Fried deserves up to 50 years…

18 hours ago

Senators Take Up TikTok Bill After Italy Fine Over Harmful Content

Senators consider bill restricting TikTok after rapid House approval, as Italy competition regulator fines company…

19 hours ago

AI Security Company Backtracks On UK Testing Claims

Security company Evolv backtracks on claims UK government tested its controversial AI security scanning systems

19 hours ago

Norfolk County Council Wins $490m Payout From Apple

Apple agrees to $490m settlement of class-action lawsuit led by Norfolk County Council for allegedly…

20 hours ago

McDonald’s International Outage Caused By Third Party

McDonald's says outage affecting thousands of locations across world caused by third-party tech provider carrying…

20 hours ago