In a cryptic tweet on Friday – just when the Twitter-Modi government spat was boiling, the microblogging site’s managing director in India, Manish Maheshwari posted a picture which read, “It’s gonna be hard. But Hard does not mean impossible.” Maheshwari captioned the picture saying “That’s the tweet”. The picture also contained the popular closed-fist symbol, most famously known for depicting ‘resistance’. Needless to say, it is now well known that Twitter is scared to its meek bones seeing the Indian government’s determination to secure the country’s cyberspace and restore the digital balance of power.
American big tech companies have come to exercise way too much authority over the Indian digital space, which is why it became necessary to rein them in and give them a reminder of who the boss is. While Facebook, Google, WhatsApp and others have taken significant steps to comply with the government’s new social media guidelines, Twitter has not. In fact, it remains adamant and is refusing to comply with Indian laws – paving the way for its banishment from India.
Addressing the issue of Twitter’s obstinacy to not comply with Indian laws and instead consider itself a sovereign entity in the country, Union IT & Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that India respects privacy, but “one has to give details when terror elements, anti-socials, anti-national are involved.” Speaking to CNN News 18, the Union Minister added, “All these social media giants make huge gains in India, have a huge presence, where common citizens, journalists, editors, businessmen are trolled. We respect criticism and anyone can criticize us as this is a part of our democracy. But our laws are important and India shall not compromise its digital sovereignty.”
Twitter has not sent details of the chief compliance officer to the IT Ministry and has instead shared details of a lawyer working in a law firm as a nodal contact person and grievance officer. This has not gone down well with the Modi government, as all other social media companies and platforms have sent the names of their compliance officers to the Ministry.
Lashing out at the microblogging site for its disregard for the Indian parliament, Ravi Shankar Prasad told India Today, “Twitter is a platform, not a regulator. To regulate, they say they have kept fact-checkers. Who are these fact-checkers? I want to know their names and how they have been appointed. Twitter should just follow India’s laws.”
Despite Twitter’s rather subtle call for ‘resistance’, the Indian government is adamant to make the American company fall in line and comply with Indian laws. The war with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one that Twitter cannot win. Therefore, the government will be the one to be laughing at it all when this battle comes to a close with a humiliating loss for Twitter.
