Twitter and WhatsApp arguing with Indian government
Twitter is being investigated by Indian police for having marked a message by a government spokesman as “manipulated media” and Facebook-owned WhatsApp has sued the Indian government saying a new regulation breaks privacy rules, Reuters reports.
Indian police informed Twitter that it is investigating the company’s tagging of a tweet by a spokesman for the governing party as “manipulated media”. Bharatiya Janata Party has shared documents on Twitter they said were written by opposition party Congress saying the government has failed in handling the pandemic.
Congress party complained to Twitter saying the document was fake and Twitter marked some of the posts – including one by BJP spokesman Sambit Patra – as “manipulated media”.
Tensions between Twitter India’s branch and the government have been brewing for months, with the government asking the social media platform on multiple occasions to take down posts critical of its record.
WhatsApp has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government to block new regulations with the company referring to experts saying the regulations would force WhatsApp to break privacy protections.
WhatsApp says the new IT rules is a violation of privacy rights in India’s constitution since it requires social media companies to identify the “first originator of information” when authorities demand it.
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