Can BJP govt. tame the beast (Twitter)?

Mukesh Devrari

Twitter’s outright refusal to accept India’s domestic laws is remarkable. It refused to accept the Information Technology Act 2000 and ignored the govt. order regarding the removal of certain accounts and hashtags. It has also refused to appoint the officials to coordinate with the government and instead provided an address of a private law firm to file any grievances against the company. Rather Twitter is trying to pressurize the BJP govt. by launching an international campaign with the help of western media outlets. It would not be unjustified to argue that BJP is over-cautious despite the contempt Twitter has shown for India's parliament and its domestic laws.

   

The legal position regarding the freedom of speech and expression is settled in India. The constitution allows reasonable restrictions on all fundamental rights enshrined in part III of our constitution. In fact, the Parliament can make any law in India, if it encroaches on fundamental rights, the appeal can be made directly to High Courts and Supreme Court of India for remedial measures. The courts can decide whether the restrictions imposed on individuals by the said law are reasonable or not. In other words, courts test the constitutionality of the laws and only the higher judiciary can arbitrate the dispute between Indian citizens and the state, not any private company.

Twitter’s refusal to obey domestic laws in India raises many questions. Can the state regulate the content on social networking sites? Can the state force social networking sites to remove the content as per IT act 2000? Is it possible for Twitter to reject India’s internet sovereignty and continue its business activities as usual in India? Is it appropriate on the part of Twitter to argue that its internal rules will prevail over the laws made by India’s parliament? Is it possible for Twitter to show similar contempt for the laws created by European Union or US legislature?

This issue also raises some questions related to the BJP government. Why BJP government is keen to initiate the regulatory process to ensure social networking companies follow domestic laws? Why has the BJP government taken no action against Twitter even after it refused to obey India’s domestic laws? Does the BJP government’s declining legitimacy is the reason behind its proselytizing before Twitter and the meek response of the Information and Broadcasting minister? Can the BJP government initiate a process to control the social networking sites operating in India due to their global influence?       

First, The question of regulating social media emerged again after Twitter refused to obey the orders of the govt. of India regarding blocking of 250 users and hashtags to maintain public order. The US monopoly insisted on judging the content on the basis of its own understanding of what is within and what is outside the purview of section 69 of IT act 2000. The US-based Twitter officials appointed themselves self-styled judges to adjudicate whether maintaining public order requires blocking certain users and hashtags under the IT act or not. 

    

After the farmers protest on 26 January 2021, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) ordered Twitter to remove more than 250 accounts and hashtags as they are violative of section 69 A of the IT act. Twitter removed the content but restored many of the blocked accounts a few hours later. The US company questioned the govt. of India’s order and argued that “stock phrases and exaggerations / crude emotional appeals did not constitute inflammatory speech”, so they do not violate the community standards of Twitter and it declined to abide by the government order.

The govt. Insisted that Twitter’s argument is meritless. The govt. is under no obligation to plead in front of a private US company to prove the legality and constitutionality of its orders and laws. Twitter cannot assume the role of the courts to adjudicate the legality and constitutionality of govt. orders and laws.  If the rules have not been applied as per the provisions of the act or violative of the fundamental rights of the citizens, even then only courts can provide relief. Twitter cannot have any say in it. If it is willing to help citizens in safeguarding it can provide legal assistance to the affected individuals in courts.   

Twitter is a political platform and its confrontation with govt. of India raises many questions. First, can twitter refuse to obey domestic laws? Can it act as an appellate authority to decide how to regulate freedom of speech in India? Can it force govt. of India to plead in front of its management as the government pleads in courts in front of judges to prove its case? Will it be possible for Twitter to function in India if it refuses to accept the IT Act? Does BJP govt. capable to deal with US companies with deep political connections in the US administration? Can India survive the onslaught of US companies and western propaganda machine in the long run?

Can Twitter refuse to obey India’s domestic laws and claim immunity from India's internet sovereignty while continuing to provide services in the country?

The answer is a little complicated. IT Act empowers govt. to restrict the narratives on social media for maintaining public order. It is difficult to describe exactly at what appoint public order is threatened by words, gestures, messages, texts and other postings on social media. This ambiguity has a purpose, it empowers the state to use its discretion to maintain law and order. In any case, there cannot be any mathematical answer to the subjective phrase ‘maintaining law and order’. The govt has to decide the time of its intervention by taking all factors into consideration. Though the courts have a final say in the matter. If govt’s accusations were found exaggerated against the protestors, then they are unlikely to survive the scrutiny in the courts. It would be fair to assume that a private US company cannot claim that it will not abide by India’s domestic laws, but will continue to function in the country. It is not a tenable position. No Indian company can dream about belittling the people of the United States and its govt. by refusing to obey their domestic laws while insisting on its right to do business in the country. What makes Twitter a highly dangerous platform is that it has no sympathy with the unity and integrity of India, while it can provide various separatist groups and their sympathizers to launch their propaganda against India.

   

Can Twitter act as an appellate authority to adjudicate the dispute between citizen/s and the government regarding the limitations on freedom of speech in India?

Every law made by the parliament is valid if it is not violative of part III of India’s constitution. The courts in India can declare all the laws or govt orders encroaching on the fundamental rights as null and void. The right to freedom of speech and expression is also not an absolute right in India. The constitution allows imposition of various reasonable restrictions on many grounds including the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency and morality, contempt of court, defamation, incitement to an offence and sovereignty and integrity of India. No private individuals or group of individuals or private companies operating in India refuse to obey the laws made by India’s parliament. As far as the application of the law is concerned, only the court of law is an appropriate forum to decide any dispute including the high-handedness on the state. The law enforcement agencies cannot be expected to plead in front of employees of Twitter before requesting the removal of content once it is found violative of the sections of any existing law in their view, irrespective of whether they are right or wrong in using their discretion. It would be inappropriate for Twitter to claim the supremacy of its internal rules over India’s laws and show complete disdain for India’s internet sovereignty. The US internet companies are welcome to make as much money as they want in India but their attempts to manipulate domestic disputes and disagreements and question the authority of our elected government must be tackled with utmost urgency. Regulating Twitter is essential as it runs the largest online political public sphere in India and has too much power to manipulate the political debates in India by citing its internal rules.

Will it be possible for Twitter to function in India if it refuses to accept the IT Act passed by our parliament?

It is difficult to answer this question. The BJP govt. has already been demonized by various protesting groups outside India. It has no credibility or trust of an international community, although they don’t have any direct say in the governance of India still as the world’s largest democracy governments’ are prone to the pressure of national and international public opinion. The large US social media companies are disturbed by the fact that the nationalist forces in India are not in favour of the monopoly of US companies while the country has the talent and potential to generate their regional rivals easily as China has done in the past two decades. It would be difficult for the ruling government in India to fix Twitter in the short run, but if Twitter continued to reject govt. orders on various spurious grounds then the bureaucratic machinery might make it difficult for Twitter to survive in India. In other words, in the short term, Twitter might get away with rejecting govt. of India and its request to cooperate in maintaining the public order, but in the long run, Twitter will have to submit before the law or pack its bag in India altogether. Though it is also important to understand that Twitter is a propaganda tool in the hands of the US establishment. Recently it played, along with Google, a crucial role in ousting President Donald Trump from office. It has deep connections with the Biden administration, which can pressurize the Modi government to proselytize before Twitter. Again it is difficult to gauge to what extent the pressure on the BJP government will work.

Can India survive the onslaught of US companies and western propaganda machine in the long run?

India is a diverse country with multiple faultlines. There are many pressure groups. People have lots of genuine reasons to be dissatisfied and angry. The extreme poverty, lack of resources, huge population, illiteracy, religious differences, violence, linguistic and ethnic diversity make matters worse. Many of its states have seen secessionist movements. The govt. of India already deployed a disproportionate amount of military and paramilitary forces to control the Islamic militancy in Kashmir. The Muslim intelligentsia due to the continuous efforts of Pakistan and partially due to the horrible image of BJP leaders started seeing Kashmir as a contest between Muslims and the Hindu majority in India. The entire North East has gone through violent phases. The secessionist movement in Punjab led to the killing of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. There is no magical power to keep India united in the face of increasing adversities. It is important to constantly inculcate the feeling of brotherhood among its population and mutual respect for its diversity among the people. Twitter is doing just the opposite. It is magnifying the differences. Right now, only 16 million Indians use it, but it is only a matter of time before it becomes 160 million and 320 million and so on. Then it will be very difficult for the BJP government to bring it under the existing or new regulatory mechanism. It would be wrong to assume that the propaganda on Twitter by vested interests can disintegrate India but it can definitely exacerbate the differences. If India and the energy of its people and government will be focused on managing the dissent, then the economic progress of the country likely to suffer and scarce resources will be diverted to maintain the public order. If this happens the future of India will suffer as the ability to attain economic progress and development will be compromised.

Conclusion

Twitter is a dangerous political platform. It is an American company that has created a global political public sphere for political discussions. It has a monopoly except for China. It is a powerful tool in the hands of western countries to launch propaganda campaigns. China is the only country in the world that anticipated the power of the internet and regulated it properly to safeguard its overall interests at the very outset. While India did not insist on internet sovereignty and ignored its long-term interests. India ignored its vulnerability while overestimating the strength of its democratic ethos and its ability to keep the country united in the face of challenging domestic circumstances.

It is a well-crafted misconception that Twitter is merely a platform. Rather it is a party to the debate. It has formulated its own guidelines about the views, opinions and perspective expressed by the users. As it is an American company it has no sensitivity towards the concerns of other countries. It played a crucial role in destabilizing Muslim nations of the Middle East. The power of Twitter can be understood by the fact that it openly targeted the President of the United States Donald Trump at the end of its tenure as he was losing elections and promoted the rival candidate Joe Biden, while Google also removed emerging rival of Twitter ‘Parler’ from its Google play store ensuring its monopoly. 

Our government must weigh the long-term consequences of allowing India to be completely controlled by US internet companies. It must not be difficult to understand that if private companies or individuals refuse to obey laws, then it will soon lead to the anarchy and collapse of the state itself. As a liberal market economy, India cannot stop international companies to make money in India. In fact, we should encourage it, but if these companies want to do business in India without submitting themselves to our laws. Then they must be reigned in.

(End..)