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Updated May 24th, 2021 at 20:55 IST

Delhi Police reaches Twitter's office after issuing notice on 'manipulated media' tweets

In a breaking development in the 'manipulated media' tag saga, teams of the Delhi Police have reached Twitter's offices in Gurgaon & Delhi to serve summons

Reported by: Jitesh Vachhatani
Delhi Police, Twitter
Image Credits: PTI/AP/Twitter | Image:self
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Update at 20:54 - The Delhi Police confirmed that it had gone to serve summons as the replies by Twitter India MD have been very ambigous. 

"The Delhi police team went to Twitter office to serve a notice to Twitter, as a part of 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. 


In a breaking development in the alleged Congress 'toolkit' saga and resulting 'manipulated media' row, officials of Delhi Police's Special Cell have reached Twitter's office in Gurugram and Delhi to serve summons. The Special Cell had 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'. As per sources, Delhi Police was prompted to visit Twitter's Gurugram office as the micro-blogging site failed to give a 'proper reply' to the notice sent before.

Delhi Police team at Twitter offices in Delhi & Gurugram after sending notice on 'toolkit' tweets being flagged as 'manipulated media'. Tap for updates

"It appears that Twitter has some information that is not known to the police. This information is relevant to the inquiry," Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal had said to PTI. Biswal said the Delhi Police is inquiring into a complaint in connection with which clarification has been sought from Twitter regarding the classification of a tweet by Sambit Patra as "manipulative". Twitter is yet to issue a response in the matter, at least till before the Delhi Police turned up at Twitter's office on Monday. 

Centre lodges strong protest with Twitter

In a 'strong communication' to Twitter's global team, the Ministry of Electronics and IT had registered an objection to the use of 'manipulated media' tag on tweets made by Indian political leaders with reference to the 'toolkit'. The Union Ministry asked Twitter to remove the 'manipulated Media' tags affixed to certain tweets in the interests of 'fairness and equity'.

The Union Ministry has highlighted to Twitter that a complaint has been made by one of the 'concerned parties' (the Congress party) before law enforcement agency questioning the veracity of the 'toolkit', stating that the matter remains under investigation. Issuing a stern response to Twitter's 'unilateral conclusion' of tagging Patra's toolkit as 'manipulated media' while the matter is still under investigation, the Centre said that such tagging by the global micro-blogging website appears 'pre-judged, prejudiced and a deliberate attempt to colour the investigation'. 

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 20:14 IST

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