Attempt to murder freedom of speech: Congress on Twitter India office raid

After two police teams descended on Twitter’s offices in Delhi and Gurgaon, the Congress on Monday alleged that the “cowardly raid” on the microblogging site’s offices by the Delhi Police “exposes lameduck attempts” to hide a “fraudulent toolkit” by BJP leaders.

The Delhi Police‘s Special Cell on Monday served a notice to Twitter India in connection with a probe into a complaint about an alleged ‘COVID toolkit’ and asked it to share information based on which it had classified a related tweet by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra as “manipulated media“, officials said.

Reacting to the development, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Twitter, “Cowardly raid on @Twitter unleashed by Delhi Police exposes lameduck attempts to hide the fraudulent toolkit by BJP leaders.” Such attempts to “murder” freedom of speech lay bare the BJP’s guilt, he said and tagged his video statement on the issue.

In the video statement, Surjewala alleged that the “subjugation of free speech, attempts to stifle every voice that is a dissenting against this government and the state-sponsored fraudulent means to propagate and instill fear continue unabated in Modi government”.

Also Read | Centre asks Twitter to remove ‘manipulated media’ tag after Sambit Patra row

“May I ask why the guilty people are sitting in BJP headquarters and in seat of power but you are raiding Twitter’s Office in Delhi and Gurgaon …the reason is simple that the BJP is running scared of its lies and getting caught and being branded as manipulated and fraudulent by social media platforms,” he said.

The BJP has accused the Congress of creating a ‘toolkit’ that seeks to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the handling of the COVID pandemic. However, the Congress has denied the allegation and claimed that the BJP is propagating a fake ‘toolkit’ to defame it.

Last week, Twitter labelled as “manipulated media” a tweet by Patra on the alleged ‘toolkit’. Twitter says it “may label Tweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated”.