NEW DELHI – Police in India’s capital served a notice at Twitter’s officeslate on Monday, seeking information for a complaint about why a tweet bythe spokesperson of the ruling Hindu-nationalist party was tagged as“manipulated media”.
Tensions have been high between the Indian government and the US socialmedia giant after Twitter earlier this year reversed its blocking of anumber of accounts critical of New Delhi’s new agriculture laws following arequest from authorities.
An Indian climate activist was arrested link inFebruary after allegedly helping to create a guide to farmer protestsagainst the laws that was tweeted by environmentalist Greta Thunberg.
The government last month also ordered Twitter and Facebook to removedozens of posts link critical of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
The latest spat followed Twitter’s labelling of a tweet on Tuesday byruling Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra as “manipulatedmedia”.
He had shared a document allegedly showing the opposition Congress party’smaster plan to contrast the BJP’s efforts to combat the pandemic withtheirs.
Congress tweeted that it had sent a letter to Twitter’s headquarters in theUS, calling for Patra’s account as well as that of several other BJPrepresentatives to be permanently suspended.
The opposition party alleged that the document shared was fake.
Delhi Police confirmed to *AFP* that they had gone to Twitter’s offices toserve the notice about the tweet, but called it part of a “routine process”.
“Delhi Police is enquiring into a complaint in which clarification issought from Twitter regarding the classification of a tweet by Shri SambitPatra as ‘manipulative’,” police said in a statement.
“It appears that Twitter has some information which is not known to us onthe basis of which they have classified it as such. This information isrelevant to the inquiry.”
A Twitter spokesperson told *AFP* it had “no comment” about Delhi Police’svisit to its offices.
Under Twitter’s rules, a post is tagged as “manipulated media” if itincludes “media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptivelyaltered or fabricated”.
A leading factcheck organisation, AltNews, said it had analysed thedocuments and claimed that some were created with a forged letterhead.
Modi and the BJP have been criticised for their slow response to a new waveof Covid-19 infections that has pushed India’s healthcare system tobreaking point.
The BJP has hit back via its social media army, blaming state governmentsand others for ignoring what it says were Modi’s repeated warnings of asecond wave.
India has reported just over 26.7 million Covid-19 infections and more than300,000 deaths, according to health ministry data, but experts warn thatthe actual toll could be much higher.-APP/AFP