Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: “If the Capitol Hill is attacked and the US police take action, these microblogging companies stand with them. But if the Red Fort is attacked, they stand with protesters. This double standard will not be allowed,” Union Minister for Law and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
All social media platforms must respect the Constitution of India and work within the prescribed guidelines, he said.
Referring to Twitter, he said the Centre is in touch with the microblogging platform over the recent controversies. “We have had a meeting with Twitter.”
He said the Centre is aware of the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s recommendations for creating a set of guidelines. “The Ministries of IT and Information and Broadcasting will review the guidelines soon. The platforms cannot make a law of their own where the Constitution has no place. They are welcome to do business here, but they must work within the Constitution of India,” he said.
Prasad clarified that freedom of speech is subject to reasonable restrictions because of the sovereignty and integrity of India. “What is the reason for the hashtags such as Narendra Modi massacre of farmers?”, he asked.
“We respect social media. It has empowered common people,” he said and added that the Centre will not allow their misuse for spreading violence. “We have formed a platform to bust fake news. We appreciate their works of social media platforms here, but they must respect the Constitution of India,” he said.
He asserted that the Centre is committed to freedom of speech. “This Government is led by leaders who have fought for the freedom of individuals, media, and independence of the judiciary, particularly during the Emergency. Our commitment to freedom of media is total. We are equally concerned about the safety, security, and sovereignty of India,” he said.
The minister said the Centre will also “address the issues of privacy when we come up with guidelines. The work is in progress. I would urge the social media to measure the unbridled exposure on the standards of your own guidelines and take action,” he said.
The Centre had recently asked Twitter to block nearly 1,460 microblogging accounts misused by “Khalistani” and anti-national propagandists who accused India of organizing “farmers’ genocide”, among other things. Their inflammatory and divisive comments resulted in violence during the ongoing farmers’ agitation against the new reformist agri-laws.
Under pressure, Twitter suspended, and then restored some accounts, which irked the government. Twitter was served notice under Section 69-A of the IT Act, forcing it to deactivate a total of 709 accounts.
Of the 257 Twitter handles, that had originally tweeted with the “farmers’ genocide” hashtag, 126 were deactivated and then restored immediately with Twitter claiming “free speech”. This prompted the Centre to flag yet another set of 1,178 accounts.
Twitter’s founder Jack Dorsey’s recent decision to like some of the tweets that supported the farmers’ protest also did not go down well with the government which felt that the act raised questions over the neutrality of the social media platform.
