'Stop Beating Around The Bush, Comply With New IT Rules': Centre's Strong Response To Twitter

New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday condemned the statement issued by Twitter as totally baseless, false and an attempt to defame India to hide their own follies and asked the micro-blogging platform to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land. Asserting India has a glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices dating back centuries, the government said: “Protecting free speech in India is not the prerogative of only a private, for-profit, foreign entity like Twitter, but it is the commitment of the world’s largest democracy and its robust institutions.” The government said Twitter’s statement is an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy. Launching a vitriolic attack, the government said Twitter earns significant revenue from its Indian operations courtesy a large user base in India but is also the “most reluctant to appoint an India based grievance redressal officer and mechanism, chief compliance officer and nodal officer to whom its own users can complain, when they are subjected to offensive Tweets”. Highlighting that discriminatory behavior has been practiced against Indians and the people of Indian origin because of malicious tagging of B.1.617 mutant as ‘Indian variant’ name despite strict WHO guidelines against it, the government said: “Again, Twitter has taken no action against such fake narratives and Tweets while grandiosely claiming to serve the people of India.” Throwing light on the communique from Twitter Inc., which states that it seeks “constructive dialogue”, “collaborative approach” from the government of a sovereign democratic republic to “safeguard interests of the public”, the Centre said it is time that Twitter disabuses itself of this grandiosity and comply with the laws of India. The government also emphatically assured the representatives of social media companies, including Twitter, that they “are and will always remain safe in India and there is no threat to their personal safety and security”.