Naavi.org has been flagging the Twitter Controversy as a “War Against India”. Twitter is confirming this more and more by their actions. Recently removing the verifiability tick of Vice President of India as also many functionaries of RSS is a needless provocation they have engaged themselves in. It is the personal experience of Naavi that Twitter has not provided the Verification despite many requests after which I have realised that the blue tick has a political reason and I don’t qualify.
It appears Twitter is emboldened because India is behaving like how the 1962 Nehruvian Government behaved against China. It is provoking the Government so that the politicians and those who oppose the current Government can take any counter action taken by the Government as a curb against “Freedom of Speech” so that they can mobilize public opinion in India and abroad to bring about a regime change. There will also be a case filed with the Supreme Court to get the orders passed if any against Twitter struck down.
But how long will the Government remain in such a compromising mood or like Lord Srikrishna waiting for Shishupala to complete 100 abuses before releasing the Sudarshana Chakra, is the Government also waiting for the Twitter’s pot of sins to be full before taking action?.. is a moot question.
In fact according to the Intermediary guidelines of 25th February 2021, rule 4(7) Twitter is required to follow the following guideline.
“The significant social media intermediary shall enable users who register for their services from India, or use their services in India, to voluntarily verify their accounts by using any appropriate mechanism, including the active Indian mobile number of such users, and where any user voluntarily verifies their account, such user shall be provided with a demonstrable and visible mark of verification, which shall be visible to all users of the service: Provided that the information received for the purpose of verification under this sub-rule shall not be used for any other purpose, unless the user expressly consents to such use.”
Twitter has not introduced any measures as required above and instead trying to project its present “Blue Tick” verification as a verification measure that it can arbitrarily impose even if it is against the law of the land. This is clearly a confrontation that cannot be missed.
The fact that they have also ignored other aspects such as appoininting of a compliance officer etc only corroborates that Twitter wants to tease the Government of India the way Shishupala was doing in Lord Krishna’s courtyard.
The time has now come for Indian Government to draw its Sudarshana Chakra and close the Twitter chapter in India.
Before Mr Modi started popularizing Twitter interaction, Twitter had no fan following in India. Now if Mr Modi exits Twitter, 68 million of his followers will also exit. This should be the first act of the Government of India which has no legal issue of any kind.
Secondly, the Government should use any of the sections of ITA 2000 or IPC and challenge Twitter for having assisted the commission of any offence such as “Spreading disharmony, hatred, etc” and since it does not have the defence under Section 79, block Twitter under Section 69 of ITA 2000 to prevent continuation of the offence.
Twitter can then go the Supreme Court where we can discuss whether the action was necessary and expedient or not.
Whatever the Court can decide, it cannot force Indians to continue to use Twitter and Government should give an administrative guideline to all Government agencies including the Courts to exit from Twitter.
Let Twitter thrive on opposition member’s support if they so want. Government should not even respond to any comment on Twitter nor post even after a delay etc. They should switch all their G2C communication to Koo and/or Tooter. In about an year’s time Koo will be good enough to be a messenger between the Government and the citizens. Twitter will fade away.
Hope our Government musters enough courage for such an action, some time today itself. We should not relent even if Twitter appears to make a tactical retreat. They will come back to hit us again in another weaker moment. We should adopt Chanakya Neeti to ensure that Twitter should be removed from its roots, from India.
Naavi
