The authorities has objected to Twitter utilizing ‘manipulated media’ tag for tweets on an alleged Congress toolkit used to goal the Centre over its COVID-19 dealing with, sources stated.
The authorities has requested Twitter to take away the ‘manipulated media’ tag because the matter is pending earlier than legislation enforcement company, and made it clear that the social media platform can’t cross judgment when the difficulty is underneath investigation.
The investigation will decide the veracity of the content material and never Twitter, it has asserted whereas asking the microblogging platform not to intervene within the investigation course of.
According to sources, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has written a robust communication to the worldwide staff of Twitter registering its objection to the ‘manipulated media’ tag on tweets made by some political leaders with reference to the toolkit allegedly created to undermine, derail and demean the efforts of the federal government towards the COVID-19 pandemic.
In its communication to Twitter, the ministry has acknowledged {that a} grievance has already been made by one of many involved events earlier than the native legislation enforcement company questioning the veracity of the toolkit and the identical is underneath investigation.
While the native legislation enforcement company is enterprise the investigation, Twitter has unilaterally drawn a conclusion on this matter and arbitrarily tagged it as ‘manipulated media’, authorities sources stated.
Such tagging by Twitter seems pre-judged, prejudiced and a deliberate try to color the investigation by native legislation enforcement company, the sources identified.
The ministry has termed such unilateral motion by Twitter as an effort to affect the honest investigation course of and a transparent overreach, which is completely unwarranted.
The ministry has additional acknowledged in its communication that Twitter unilaterally selected to go forward and designate sure tweets as ‘manipulated’, pending investigation by the legislation enforcement company.
Such motion not solely dilutes the credibility of Twitter as a impartial and unbiased platform facilitating trade of views by the customers but additionally places a query mark on Twitter’s standing as an “intermediary”, they stated.
This comes within the backdrop of Twitter labelling as ‘manipulated media’ a tweet by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on the alleged toolkit ready by the Congress to goal the Modi authorities.
Twitter says it “may label Tweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated.”
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