Centre, police: ‘Bid to dictate terms to largest democracy’

Reacting sharply to a statement from Twitter about a “potential threat to freedom of expression” for its users in India, and “intimidation” by Delhi Police, the Union IT Ministry accused the social media platform of “scuttling free speech” with its “opaque policies” that result in accounts being suspended and tweets “deleted arbitrarily without response”.

“Twitter’s statement is an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy. Twitter refuses to comply with those very regulations in the Intermediary Guidelines on the basis of which it is claiming a safe harbour protection from any criminal liability in India,” the Government said.