Government Never Threatened Staff of Social Media Platforms With Jail Term: IT Ministry

New Delhi: The government has never threatened employees of any social media platform, such as Twitter, of jail term, the IT Ministry has said.

Reacting to reports that alluded to Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter employees being threatened with jail term, the ministry said social media platforms are “obliged to follow the laws of India and the Constitution of India, just like all other businesses in India have to.”

“As has been conveyed on the floor of parliament, users of social media can criticise the government, the prime minister or any minister but promotion of violence, rampant communal divide and stoking the flames of terrorism will have to be reflected upon,” it said.

The ministry’s statement comes a month after it faced off with microblogging platform Twitter over its demand to remove hundreds of posts and accounts relating to the farmers’ protest that it said violated rules. Many of these accounts used a controversial hashtag. Twitter initially did not fully comply but fell in line after the government warned the social media giant it could face ‘penal action’.

“None of the government communications, either written or oral, have ever threatened the employees of any of the social media platforms of jail term,” the ministry said.

“The government welcomes criticism and dissent. However, of late, repeated instances of abuse of social media to foment hate, discord and violence by terrorist groups from outside India and circulation of morphed images of women, revenge porn posing threat to the safety of users especially women users have become grave concerns,” it said.

The IT Ministry also addressed the recently notified IT Rules, which have come under criticism for giving the Central government sweeping and unprecedented oversight of over the top streaming platforms, digital news media outlets and social media platforms. The ministry said that the rules pertaining to social media simply require the platforms to put in place a robust grievance redressal mechanism for users. (The Wire)