Twitter says concerned about India staff safety after police visit

Indian police on Monday visited a Twitter office to serve a notice to the micro-blogging firm's country head for a probe into its tagging of a tweet by a ruling party spokesman as "manipulated media".

US-based microblogging platform Twitter is worried about its safety of employees and “intimidation tactics” by police in India days after its premises were raided.

With the statement, the company is finally breaking its silence on the raid  on May 24 as a part of ongoing investigation related to the manipulated media tags for certain posts, and compliance with the new IT rules, which came into effect on Thursday.

“Right now, we are concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serve. We, alongside much in civil society in India and around the world, have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service, as well as with core elements of the new IT Rules. We plan to advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free, open public conversation. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian Government and believe it is critical to adopt a collaborative approach. It is the collective responsibility of elected officials, industry, and civil society to safeguard the interests of the public,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to Moneycontrol.

Spokesperson of ruling BJP party Sambit Patra tweets on alleged toolkit prepared by the Congress were tagged as manipulated media by Twitter, after it was reported by the Congress. The Delhi police raided Twitter’s office to service notice to the Twitter MD Manish Maheshwari.

While Facebook and Google has said that they will comply with the IT rules, and had asked for more engagement with the government, Twitter, in addition to asking for three months extension, it has also raised concerns about requirements under the new rule.

Twitter said that the firm is concerned about the requirement to make an individual (the compliance officer) criminally liable for content on the platform, the requirements for proactive monitoring, and the blanket authority to seek information about our customers.

The development was first reported by the news agency, Reuters.