BJP attacks Twitter, promotes its rival as it refuses to block accounts

Hours after microblogging site Twitter released a statement saying that transparency was the foundation to promote healthy public conversation on Twitter and to earn trust, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders are attacking the US-based company for not complying to the law. According to Twitter’s statement, after Republic Day violence, it has suspended more than 500 accounts that were engaging in clear examples of platform manipulation and spam.

BJP leader Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya, who seems to be unhappy with the social media giant’s reaction, tweeted, ” Twitter seems to hold itself above the laws of the Indian State.

It is picking and choosing what law to follow and what not to.

I had raised this issue in Zero Hour in Lok Sabha yesterday, but zero hour wasn’t taken up yesterday.

Requesting @GoI_MeitY to act stringently.”

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“The country is governed based on constitution not some corporate rule,” said another leader.

Party’s National General Secretary BL Santosh also tweeted and reminded Twitter to adhere to the country’s rules.

In the blog post, Twitter termed Indian government’s demand to ban some handles as inconsistent with Indian law. It imposed restrictions on some of them within India.

Meanwhile, Central ministers like Ravi Shankar Prasad and Piyush Goyal have been promoting Koo, ‘Desi Twitter’ developed by a Bengaluru-based startup. Government units like the NITI Aayog, too, have logged on to this platform.

Responding to Twitter’s blog, the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT, tweeted, “Upon the request of Twitter seeking a meeting with the Govt., the Secretary IT was to engage with senior management of Twitter. In this light a blog post published prior to this engagement is unusual. Govt. will share its response soon.”