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NEW DELHI: Twitter today (Thursday) has called upon the Indian government to respect freedom of expression, saying that it was worried about the safety of its staff in India.
The development came days after Indian police visited its office in New Delhi over its labelling of a tweet by a governing party spokesman as “manipulated media”.
“We have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serve,” the Twitter said in a statement.
Twitter further said to keep our service available, we will strive to comply with applicable law in India. “However, just as we do around the world, we will continue to be strictly guided by principles of transparency, a commitment to empowering every voice on the service, and protecting freedom of expression and privacy under the rule of law,” it added.
Twitter has been involved in a tense battle with the Indian government, which has often asked it to restrict content alleging Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is trying to silence criticism, including of its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Monday, Indian police visited the Twitter office in New Delhi to serve a notice directing it to answer questions about its tagging of the tweet as manipulated. “It appears that Twitter has some information which is not known to us on the basis of which they have classified it as such,” police said.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp also filed a lawsuit in Delhi High Court arguing that new government rules that require it to make messages “traceable” to external parties are unconstitutional and undermine the fundamental right to privacy.
Under Twitter rules, it applies “manipulated media” tags to posts that have been “deceptively altered or fabricated”. Critics accuse Modi’s government of silencing criticism on social media, particularly Twitter, a charge senior leaders of the governing party have denied.
