Thread by @nixxin

So, a thread with some context on the Government of India asking Twitter to remove the "Manipulated Media" tag on Sambit Patra's tweet. Story here: medianama.com/2021/05/223-sa…

1. There's no official statement, no copy of the letter sent, but news agencies like ANI and PTI are
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reporting it quoting anonymous sources so there seems to be a selective leak. What stops MEITY from publishing its correspondence anyway? Not clear. We'll file RTI's anyway.

2. The government can object all it wants, but exactly what part of India's IT Act allows them to have
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this "manipulated media" tag removed? None. Twitter can tag whatever it wants, whoever it wants, whenever it wants. It's their platform. Govt can only request, not order for the tag to be removed AFAIK.

3. There is a suggestion from the ANI tweets that as per MEITY,this puts

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a question mark on Twitter's status as an "intermediary".

https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1395714092837457931?s=19

This claim from MEITY is laughable and completely unfounded.

For twitter to lose its intermediary status in this instance they would have to had modified the content of the tweet, which they

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haven't. Marking it as manipulated does not modify the content of the tweet. Twitter is also protected by the Shreya Singhal judgment, where they have liability only upon inaction after receiving "actual knowledge" (which as the the SC is a court order/govt order). Does the

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letter from MEITY cite a law and does it order the removal as per a clause in the IT Act? We don't know.

4. Seems govt is claiming that this prejudices the a legal process. Why is MEITY sending this letter about prejudice? I don't know. Shouldn't it be a court?

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5. What recourse does Sambit Patra have? Well, under the new IT Rules 2021, he can file a grievance with Twitter's grievance officer. Under the Rules, the complaint has to be acknowledged within 24 hours, and dealt with in 15 days. So why isn't the govt jumping in when the
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IT Rules actually allow Patra due process?

6. Govt now has more leverage against Twitter: We probably won't see Twitter push back against govt, the way they did in Jan/Feb. The IT Rules have been passed, & they include criminal liability for the Chief Compliance Officer at
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Twitter. These rules need to be challenged in court from a users standpoint because they hamper free speech and empower the govt against users by empowering them against platforms. And they're probably illegal, because not backed by IT Act.

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7. Did this controversy around toolkit/fake toolkit grab your attention? Did it distract you (and especially journos) from the massive governance failure re COVID, struggles for 02, the attempts to failures? Political parties in power use social media as
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weapons of mass distraction.

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