Tag: Twitter

  • Twitter interim grievance officer for India steps down weeks after appointment

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter’s interim resident grievance officer for India has stepped down, leaving the micro-blogging site without a grievance official as mandated by the new IT rules to address complaints from Indian subscribers, according to a source.

    The source said that Dharmendra Chatur, who was recently appointed as interim resident grievance officer for India by Twitter, has quit from the post.

    The social media company’s website no longer displays his name, as required under Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021.

    Twitter declined to comment on the development.

    The development comes at a time when the micro-blogging platform has been engaged in a tussle with the Indian government over the new social media rules.

    The government has slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country’s new IT rules.

    ALSO READ | Twitter withholds 35 tweets after legal request from India, says Lumen database

    The new rules which came into effect from May 25 mandate social media companies to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for resolving complaints from the users or victims.

    All significant social media companies, with over 50 lakh user base shall appoint a grievance officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officers.

    The big social media companies are mandated to appoint a chief compliance officer, a Nodal Contact Person, and a resident grievance officer.

    All of them should be residents in India.

    Twitter in response to the final notice issued by the government on June 5 had said that it intends to comply with the new IT rules and will share details of the chief compliance officer.

    In the meantime, the microblogging platform had appointed Chatur as interim resident grievance officer for India.

    Twitter now displays the company’s name in the place of grievance officer for India with a US address and an email ID.

    According to a government official, the company has lost legal protection as an intermediary and will be legally held responsible for all content posted by its users on the platform.

  • Twitter withholds 35 tweets after legal request from India, says Lumen database

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter has “withheld” about 35 tweets following a legal request from the Indian government, as per information on the Lumen database.

    Twitter received a legal request from the Indian government on June 21 for action against 37 tweets, a document on Lumen database showed.

    Given that the tweets have been withheld, the content could not be independently verified.

    Upon clicking on the blocked URLs listed on the Lumen database, a message saying the tweet has been “withheld in IN in response to a legal demand” is displayed for 35 tweets.

    Two links displayed the message “This Tweet is unavailable”.

    Lumen database is an independent research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content, and requests received by Twitter for withholding content are published on its site.

    When contacted, a Twitter spokesperson said: “As explained in our Country Withheld Policy, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in response to a valid legal demand or when the content has been found to violate local law(s).”

    ALSO READ | Action on account without giving user full context akin to platform taking judgement call: Koo CEO on Twitter row

    The spokesperson noted that the withholdings are limited to the specific jurisdiction/country where the content is determined to be illegal.

    The account holder is notified directly — by sending a message to the email address associated with the account(s), if available — so that the user is aware that Twitter has received a legal order pertaining to the account.

    “The legal requests that we receive are detailed in the bianual Twitter Transparency Report, and requests to withhold content are published on Lumen,” the spokesperson added.

    Twitter had restricted 50 tweets recently after a legal request dated June 17.

    The US-based company has been in the eye of a storm over failure to comply with the new IT rules in India, which mandates, among other requirements, the appointment of three key personnel — chief compliance officer, nodal officer and grievance officer by social media platforms with over 50 lakh users.

    All the three personnel have to be resident in India.

    ALSO READ | Parliament panel to seek explanation from Twitter on locking of Ravi Shankar Prasad, Tharoor’s accounts

    While the rules came into effect on May 26, Twitter is yet to adhere to the social media guidelines, despite repeated reminders from the government.

    Twitter on Friday briefly blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account over an alleged copyright violation, ratcheting up tensions with the government as it came under renewed attack for not following local laws.

    The government had earlier slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the IT rules, which has led to the US giant losing its legal shield as an ‘intermediary’ in India and becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

    Twitter has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, as per data cited by the government recently.

  • Action on account without giving user full context akin to platform taking judgement call: Koo CEO on Twitter row

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Direct action on an account without giving the user the full context of the alleged violation and a chance to contest is akin to a social media platform taking final judgement call and not acting as an intermediary, Koo CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna said on Friday.

    The comments by the top official of homegrown microblogging platform Koo came after rival Twitter briefly blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account over alleged violation of US copyright law – a move that was immediately slammed by the him as being arbitrary and against the IT rules.

    The minister called out Twitter over the brazen arbitrariness and “running their own agenda”.

    Twitter’s actions are in gross violation of the IT rules, where they failed to provide any prior notice before denying access to the account, the minister said in a series of posts on Koo.

    Prasad later also tweeted on the issue.

    “Giving a user complete context of any claimed violation and an intimation of the exact violation is important. The user should also be able to contest or accept the claimed violation,” Koo’s Radhakrishna said in a statement.

    “A direct action of suspension without the above makes it seem like a social media platform is taking the final judgement call and is not being an intermediary,” Radhakrishna added.

    Lashing out at Twitter earlier, the minister had said it was apparent that his recent statements calling out the “high handedness and arbitrary actions” of Twitter had ruffled feathers.

    “Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account,” Prasad wrote.

    The temporary locking of the IT minister’s Twitter account comes at a time when the US digital giant has been engaged in a tussle with the Indian government over the new social media rules.

    The government has slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country’s new IT rules, which has led to the microblogging platform losing its legal shield as an intermediary in India, and becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

    Twitter had not fully complied with the new rules, called Intermediary Guidelines, that mandate setting up grievance redressal mechanism and appointing officers to coordinate with law enforcement.

    The rules became effective from May 26 and Twitter, even after the expiry of the additional time, had not appointed the requisite officers, leading to it losing the ‘safe harbour’ immunity.

  • Parliament panel to seek explanation from Twitter on locking of Ravi Shankar Prasad, Tharoor’s accounts

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: After Twitter briefly blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his account for alleged copyrights violation, chairman of the parliamentary panel on information technology Shashi Tharoor on Friday said the same thing happened with him and the standing committee will be seeking an explanation from the social media firm over the temporary locking of their accounts and the rules it follows while operating in India.

    Confronting Twitter, Prasad said it was apparent that his statements calling out the high handedness and arbitrary actions of the micro-blogging platform, particularly sharing clips of interviews to TV channels and the powerful impact had “clearly ruffled its feathers”.

    “Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account,” Prasad said in a tweet.

    Tagging Prasad’s tweet, Tharoor said, “Raviji, the same thing just happened to me. Clearly DMCA is getting hyperactive.”

    He said one of his tweets has been deleted by Twitter because its video included the copyrighted BoneyM song”Rasputin”.

    After a process, the account was unlocked, the Congress leader said.

    Indians creatively make videos using short snippets of foreign music and most people would consider that “fair use”, Tharoor argued in a series of tweets.

    Instead of letting the clip enhance the popularity of their song, the copyright holders have issued a notice, the Lok Sabha MP said, adding that though he had just retweeted it, he was not about to contest their act.

    In this case the complainant was the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry which is zealously defending the rights of Sony Music to “Rasputin”, he said.

    Ironically, Tharoor said, at their last conference in India, he was a keynote speaker.

    “So I won’t blame @Twitter for this action or attribute the motives to them that @rsprasad does, though it wasn’t pleasant finding my account locked. Clearly they had no choice but to honour a DMCA takedown notice, however stupid & pointless the request was,” he said in another tweet.

    But getting a notice from a UK-based organisation, citing Twitter’s role as a service provider under a US law, points to the challenges of Twitter India’s operations in India, Tharoor said.

    The minister has pointed to possible violations of Indian regulations while conforming to foreign rules, he said.

    “As Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, I can state that we will be seeking an explanation from @TwitterIndia for the locking of @rsprasad’s & my accounts & the rules & procedures they follow while operating in India,” Tharoor said.

    A couple of hours after his series of tweets, Tharoor tweeted that Twitter had locked him out again because to explain the problem, the first tweet in his thread of tweets included the offending copyrighted video.

    “Locking is a foolish response to a DCMA notice; disabling the video (which they’ve now done) should be enough. @Twitter has a lot to learn,” he said.

    Weighing into the issue, Rajya Sabha MP and Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi said this has happened to her verified Facebook page as well with respect to television debates.

    “I had also raised this copyright issue in the department related Committee meeting. Unfortunately, it only pinches when it hits home. No conspiracy sir, it is something that has gone unaddressed & is less understood,” Chaturvedi said, tagging Prasad’s tweet.

    “I had in a committee meeting on copyright and Intellectual Property Rights asked this specific question: how can a TV channel flag a segment as copyright violation for a debate in which I was a part & is shared on my page? The page was allowed access only when post was taken down,” she tweeted.

    However, there was no answer then and not even taken up as a larger issue that needs clarity, she said in her series of tweets on the issue.

    “Today it happened to the IT Minister and he blames the platform! The issue is not you, your position or the platform, it is the lack of clarity. But then we live in the times of narrative setting,” Chaturvedi said.

    The temporary locking of the IT Minister’s Twitter account comes at a time when the US-based digital giant has been engaged in a tussle with the Indian government over the new social media rules.

    The government has slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country’s new IT rules, which has led to the microblogging platform losing its legal shield as an intermediary in India and becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

    Lashing out at Twitter, Prasad — in a series of posts on rival social media platform Koo — said it was apparent that his statements calling out the “high handedness and arbitrary actions” of Twitter had ruffled feathers.

    He also tweeted on the issue.

  • Prasad cries foul after Twitter denies him access to account, Tharoor says happened to him too

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad cried foul saying social media giant Twitter denied him access to his account for around an hour on Friday. This was over complaints that he had violated copyright laws by posting his clippings from TV debates.

    “Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of the US and subsequently they allowed me to access the account,” said Prasad in a tweet.

    He attached a screenshot of the account when it was locked and Twitter’s message which read, “Your account has been locked because Twitter received a compliant Digital Millenium Copyright Act (“DMCA”) Notice for content posted to your Twitter account. Under the DMCA, copyright owners can notify Twitter claiming that a user has infringed their copyrighted works. Upon receipt of a valid DMCA notice, Twitter will remove the identified material. Twitter maintains a repeat copyright infringer policy under which repeat infringer accounts will be suspended. Accruing multiple DMCA strikes may lead to suspension of your account.”

    He posted a subsequent screenshot where it said the account was ‘available for use’.

    Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted saying it happened to him too and said a hyperactive DMCA might be to blame.

    Raviji, the same thing just happened to me. Clearly DMCA is getting hyperactive. This tweet has been deleted by @Twitter because its video includes the copyrighted BoneyM song”Rasputin”: https://t.co/ClgP2OKV1o #DanceIsNotJihad pic.twitter.com/IqQD50WhaUAfter process, a/c unlocked. https://t.co/TCeT8aGxV6
    — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 25, 2021

    It was something Twitter confirmed in a statement when The New Indian Express reached out to them. A Twitter spokesperson said, “We can confirm that the Honourable Minister’s account access was temporarily restricted due to a DMCA notice only and the referenced Tweet has been withheld. Per our copyright policy, we respond to valid copyright complaints sent to us by a copyright owner or their authorised representatives.”

    ALSO READ | Karnataka HC restrains UP police from taking any coercive action against Twitter India’s MD

    Prasad posted a series of tweets in which he alleged Twitter’s actions were in ‘gross violation of Rule 4(8) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021’ where they failed to provide Prasad with any prior notice before denying him access to my own account.

    “It is apparent that my statements calling out the high-handedness and arbitrary actions of Twitter, particularly sharing the clips of my interviews to TV channels and its powerful impact, have clearly ruffled its feathers,” he said in another tweet.

    “Further, it is now apparent as to why Twitter is refusing to comply with the Intermediary Guidelines because if Twitter does comply, it would be unable to arbitrarily deny access to an individual’s account which does not suit their agenda,” he added.

    “Furthermore, in the past several years, no television channel or any anchor has made any complaints about copyright infringements with regard to these news clips of my interviews shared on social media,” Prasad said.

    He added that Twitter’s actions indicated that they were not the harbinger of free speech that they claim to be but were ‘only interested in running their own agenda, with the threat that if you do not tow the line they draw, they will arbitrarily remove you from their platform’.

    “No matter what any platform does they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there shall be no compromise on that,” he said in the last tweet.

    The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the US criminalises production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works. It also criminalises the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself.

    While the Act exempts online service providers exempts them from filtering out copyright infringement, the onus is on copyright holders to request removal of violations.

    This places the burden on copyright holders to request the removal of violations.

    The Centre and Twitter have been at loggerheads since the government notified the IT Rules in February, and over Twitter’s ‘non-compliance’ of rules.

    Recently, Prasad had tweeted that Twitter failed to comply with the new IT Rules despite being given multiple opportunities. He had said that the ‘rule of law’ was bedrock of Indian society. 

  • Twitter denies access to IT Minister Prasad’s account for 1 hour alleging violation of US Copyright Act

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter on Friday temporarily blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s account for alleged violation of the US Copyright Act, a move that the minister slammed as being arbitrary and gross violation of IT rules.

    Hitting out at Twitter, Prasad in a series of posts on another social media platform Koo said that Twitter’s action is in gross violation of IT rules, as the platform had failed to give prior notice before denying access to his account. The account was subsequently unblocked after a warning.

    Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account. pic.twitter.com/WspPmor9Su
    — Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) June 25, 2021

    Confronting Twitter, Prasad said it was apparent that his statements calling out the high handedness and arbitrary actions of the microblogging platform, particularly sharing clips of interviews to TV channels and the powerful impact had “clearly ruffled its feathers”.

    “Friends! Something highly peculiar happened today. Twitter denied access to my account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA and subsequently they allowed me to access the account,” Prasad said.

    The blocking of the IT Minister’s Twitter account comes at a time when the US digital giant has been engaged in a tussle with the Indian government over the new social media rules.

    The government has slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country’s new IT rules, which has led to the microblogging platform losing its intermediary status in India and becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

  • For too long now, Twitter has indulged in online bullying of citizens: Varun Gandhi

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Thursday asked Twitter to make public the legal notice, which it said it had received from Indian law enforcement, against violations by him on the micro-blogging site.

    Gandhi also tweeted a screenshot of an email that he said he had received from Twitter, informing him of “a request from Indian law enforcement” regarding his account.

    The BJP leader said it claimed that his account had violated the laws.

    “I am certain I have violated no law and that no law agency would have found anything offensive in my tweets. Twitter should clarify their basis for such correspondence. Shocked by their behaviour,” said Gandhi, who represents Uttar Pradesh’s Pilibhit constituency in Parliament.

    He also said that the micro-blogging site should not become an ostracising platform.

    Underlining that he had not violated any law, Gandhi said Twitter is “bullying” Indian citizens and alleged that the social media giant has an agenda.

    “For too long now, Twitter has indulged in online bullying of our citizens for their diversity of political views to make us conform with their ‘woke’ propaganda. It should stay a platform, not an ostracising tribunal. This harassment of Indians will not fly with the law of the land,” he tweeted.

    The MP said he is making these remarks after enquiring from all possible avenues connected with Indian law enforcement within the government.

    “If Twitter really has received a complaint regarding my content, let it share the said legal notice and its provenance in the interest of transparency,” he said.

    This comes amid a tussle between the BJP government at the Centre and Twitter over various issues ranging from complying of new IT rules to terming tweets by the party leaders as manipulated media.

  • Ghaziabad police slaps second notice on Twitter India MD, cautions him of prosecution

    By PTI
    GHAZIABAD: The Ghaziabad police on Monday warned the Twitter India managing director that his failure to report to it and join its investigation on June 24 in the case of the circulation of a communally sensitive video on its platform would amount to a hindrance in its probe, entailing legal consequences.

    In a second notice sent to Twitter India MD Maneesh Maheshwari, Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police Amit Pathak warned him that his failure may result in his prosecution for hindering the probe.

    The new notice to the Twitter India MD was sent late Monday evening after Maheshwari offered to join the investigation through video conference, a senior police officer said.

    In response to the first notice of the police, Twitter India had also conveyed to them that the information sought by the Ghaziabad police did not pertain to Twitter India but Twitter Inc, its global head office.

    In the second notice sent to Twitter India’s Delhi office at Shahid Bhagat Singh Place in Gole Market, SSP Pathak sternly told the MD that the “e-Mail sent by you shows that you are escaping the responsibility of cooperation with the police in the investigation”.

    “Clarification given by you is inappropriate. Being the MD of Twitter in India, you are the representative of the company. Therefore, you are bound by the Indian law to cooperate in the investigation,” SSP Pathak said in the second notice, slapped on Maheshwari under section 41 A of the Criminal Procedure Code.

    The SSP squarely held the MD responsible for the circulation of the communally provocative video, in which an elderly Muslim man of Bulandshahr was seen crying on June 14, accusing four youths of beating him up, chopping his beard and asking him to chant “Jai Shri Ram”.

    “In the public interest and for the sake of the security of the state, you are authorised and have the power to make the decision that which tweet is supposed to be publicised and which should be deleted,” Pathak told Maheshwari, reminding him of his editorial responsibility.

    ALSO READ | Twitter withholds 50 tweets related to alleged assault of Muslim man in Ghaziabad

    “The message concerned in which your cooperation is required has enhanced tension in the state and the country and has hampered the communal harmony,” said Pathak.

    “The Ghaziabad police had tweeted (on June 14) through its official Twitter handle that the news broadcasted by you is fake. It was under your jurisdiction and you could have stopped spreading the false information but you failed in it,” Pathak said in the notice.

    Reminding the Twitter India MD of the consequences of failure in joining the investigation at Loni police station on June 24, Pathak further said, “Your absence would be treated as a hindrance to the investigation.”

    “This type of act would be treated as an attempt of creating an obstruction in the investigation which leads the police to initiate further legal action,” he added.

    Notices have also been sent to the news website The Wire in which journalists Mohammed Zubair and Rana Ayyub, writer Saba Naqvi, Congress politicians Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani and Shama Mohamed have been accused of sharing the video with an intention to provoke communal unrest.

    Bulandshahr man Abdul Samad Saifi, who was allegedly thrashed on June 5 by some youths over a dispute on a magical amulet given by him to another youth, Parvesh Gurjar, had reported the matter to police on June 7 on which the police had lodged an FIR.

    But days later on June 14, Saifi, under the alleged instigation of a Samajwadi Party worker, had got recorded the communal video, claiming that he was thrashed and his beards chopped for not chanting “Jai Shri Ram”, leaving the police surprised.

  • Twitter withholds 50 tweets related to alleged assault of Muslim man in Ghaziabad

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter has “withheld” 50 tweets related to a communally sensitive video clip of an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on the microblogging platform, according to sources.

    According to information on the Lumen database, Twitter received a legal request from the Indian government on June 17 for actioning 50 tweets.

    These tweets have been withheld and the content could not be independently verified.

    Upon clicking on the blocked URLs listed on Lumen database, a message saying the tweet has been “withheld in India in response to a legal demand” is displayed.

    According to sources, these tweets contained content related to the said video clip.

    When contacted, a Twitter spokesperson said: “As explained in our Country Withheld Policy, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in response to a valid legal demand or when the content has been found to violate local law(s)”.

    The spokesperson noted that the withholdings are limited to the specific jurisdiction/country where the content is determined to be illegal.

    The account holder is notified directly – by sending a message to the e-mail address associated with the account(s), if available – so that the user is aware that Twitter has received a legal order pertaining to the account.

    “The legal requests that we receive are detailed in the biannual Twitter Transparency Report, and requests to withhold content are published on Lumen,” the spokesperson added.

    Requests received by Twitter for withholding content are published on Lumen database – an independent research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content.

    The Ghaziabad police have booked Twitter and six people for circulating a video that claimed to have the elderly Muslim man saying he was allegedly thrashed and asked to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

    Police say this was done to create communal unrest.

    The Ghaziabad police have sent a notice to Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, asking him to join a probe in connection with the case.

    Twitter has drawn flak for failure to fully comply with the new IT rules, which mandates among other requirements, the appointment of three key personnel – chief compliance officer, nodal officer and grievance officer by social media platforms with over 50 lakh users.

    All the three personnel have to be resident in India.

    While the rules came into effect on May 26, Twitter is yet to adhere to the social media guidelines, despite repeated reminders from the government.

    The government, last week, had slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the IT rules, which has led to the US giant losing its intermediary status in India and becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

    Twitter and the government have been at loggerheads over multiple instances in the past months, including during the farmers’ protest and later when the microblogging platform tagged political posts of several leaders of the ruling party BJP as “manipulated media”, triggering a sharp rebuke from the Centre.

    Twitter has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, as per data cited by the government recently.

    Earlier this month, Twitter had blocked accounts of Punjabi rapper JazzyB, Sydney-based hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion and two others following demands by the Indian government.

    Earlier this year, more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

  • Ministry’s remove-tag order unjustified: NGO

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Internet Freedom Foundation, an NGO that does advocacy on digital rights and liberties, has accessed two letters through the Right to Information (RTI) Act. These were issued by the Ministry of Information and Technology (MeitY) to Twitter in May. The group says the ministry went beyond its statutory powers in asking Twitter to remove the ‘manipulated media’ tags from tweets on an alleged ‘toolkit’ without any legal basis.

    The group filed two RTI applications before the Department of Electronics and Information Technology at MeitY on May 21 and June 2 on whether any governmental authorities had been in contact with Twitter for tweets related to the alleged Congress toolkit, and whether any governmental authorities had issued any direction to Twitter to remove the manipulated media tags related to the Toolkit. It asked what was the provision of law under which directions to remove tags were issued. It also requested for copies of communication(s) sent to Twitter.

    The RTI confirmed that MeitY had issued letters to Twitter asking it to remove the ‘manipulated media’ tags. According to the Foundation, MeitY had acknowledged Twitter’s policies and claimed that such policies were ‘opaque and violated the principles of natural justice’, since the users whose tweets were tagged as ‘manipulated media’ did not receive an opportunity to be heard.

    “MeitY reiterated that tagging tweets carrying the alleged toolkit as ‘manipulated media’ would colour ongoing investigations. This time, however, MeitY requested Twitter to stop the practice of tagging tweets as ‘manipulated media’, at least during the pendency of this particular investigation,” the Foundation said in a post.

    “Such requests have come without legal basis or authority. In its letters to Twitter or in the RTI response to us, MeitY has not made reference to any provision of law from which the authority to restrain an intermediary from fighting disinformation is derived,” said the Foundation. It added that Twitter’s policies need to be transparent, but MeitY doesn’t have the power to tell social media platforms how to govern their platforms.