The central government on Thursday hit back at Twitter and said the social media giant should stop beating around the bush and comply with the rules framed by the Ministry of Information and Technology.
In a statement, the government said it “strongly controverts” the claims made by Twitter in its press release.
“India has a glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices dating back centuries. 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 in the statement.
It added that Twitter’s statement is an “attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy”. The government also accused Twitter of trying to undermine India’s legal system with its “actions and deliberate defiance”.
“Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land. Law making and policy formulations is the sole prerogative of the sovereign, and Twitter is just a social media platform and it has no locus in dictating what should India’s legal policy framework should be,” the government said.
