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Updated May 24th, 2021 at 22:41 IST

Congress takes umbrage at cops' visit to Twitter India; alleges govt trying to threaten

Congress has accused the Centre of attempting to threaten Twitter & other social media outlets as it labelled tweets by BJP leaders as 'manipulated media'

Reported by: Jitesh Vachhatani
Congress
Image Credits: ANI/PTI/Republicworld | Image:self
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With Delhi Police officials visiting Twitter's Delhi and Gurugram offices to serve notices in the alleged 'toolkit' and 'manipulated media' tag saga and terming Twitter India's MD's response in the matter as 'ambiguous', Congress has taken an umbrage with the entire matter. Issuing a statement on the developments of the day, Congress has accused the Centre of attempting to threaten Twitter and other social media outlets after it tagged several tweets by BJP leaders related to the 'toolkit' as 'manipulated media'. Citing the FIR registered in Chattisgarh (against BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra), the grand old party said that the BJP had 'panicked' which has prompted the Centre to rally behind the Delhi Police.

Issuing a statement on Delhi Police's visit to Twitter's offices, Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala said, "When Chattisgarh has registered a case in the matter and when Twitter stamped the 'manipulated media' tag on tweets by BJP leaders, the government has panicked. Today, something which has never happened in the country, happened. Now, by conducting raids on Twitter's Delhi and Gurugram offices, the BJP government is trying to threaten Twitter and other social media platforms." 

Highlighting the intermediary rules that are set to be enforced from May 25 onwards, Surjewala questioned under which law were the notices being issued to Twitter? Pertinently, earlier in the day, top government sources reported that the Ministry of Electronics & IT had put the social media platforms on notice over falling in line with the new guidelines as the three-month window to do so ends on Tuesday, with sources confirming that most of the major outlets except Koo have failed to comply. The Congress spokesperson concluded by stating that the government will never 'be able to clamp down on free voice in the country'.

Delhi Police reaches Twitter India offices 

At around 8:30 PM on Monday evening, officials of Delhi Police's Special Cell reached Twitter's office in Gurugram and Delhi to serve summons. The Special Cell had earlier sent a notice to the micro-blogging site and sought clarification for classifying BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra's tweet on the alleged Congress 'toolkit' as 'manipulated media'.  The notice had been sent on May 21, right after the Centre communicated its 'strong objection' against the 'manipulated media' tag being used by Twitter for the 'toolkit' tweets by BJP leaders and sought the tag's removal. Rather than this, however, Twitter proceeded to flag 5 more BJP netas' tweets as 'Manipulated media'. 

The Delhi Police later confirmed that it had gone to serve summons as the replies by Twitter India MD have been very ambiguous.  "The Delhi police team went to the Twitter office to serve a notice, as a part of a routine process. This was necessitated as we wanted to ascertain who is the right person to serve a notice, as replies by Twitter India MD have been very ambiguous," the Delhi Police said in a statement. 

Congress files FIR in Chattisgarh 

The tweet in contention by BJP's Sambit Patra pertains to the alleged toolkit, created by the Congress, to defame Prime Minister Narendra Modi's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Congress has filed an FIR in the matter. Congress national spokesperson Sunil Ahire had informed that an FIR has been filed by his party. The Congress spokesperson had said that BJP is propagating a fake 'toolkit' on 'COVID-19 mismanagement' and attributing it to AICC Research Department. "We are filing an FIR for forgery against JP Nadda and Sambit Patra," he added. In the same matter, Raipur police has summoned former Chattisgarh CM Raman Singh and Sambit Patra. 

The Congress has alleged that BJP sought to divert the attention from the Centre's "mammoth failure" in providing relief to the people of India. Claiming that BJP forged the letterhead of the AICC Research Department and printed false content on the same, it demanded action against the BJP leaders under the relevant sections of the IPC and the IT Act. As per the Congress party's research department head, a document on the Central Vista project does exist, but doesn't carry the same pointers as the one posted by Patra. The veracity of the remainder of the internal research document remains unknown.

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Published May 24th, 2021 at 22:41 IST

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