Twitter refusing to cooperate, say Delhi Police

Responding to Twitter’s assertion, the Delhi Police on Thursday mentioned the micro-blogging web site is neither police nor judiciary and that it’s refusing to cooperate with the regulation enforcement company.

“Twitter Inc. is purporting to be both an investigating authority as well as an adjudicating judicial authority. It has no legal sanction to be either. The only legal entity, so empowered by the duly laid down law, to investigate is the police and to adjudicate is the Courts,” Delhi Police spokesperson mentioned.

Terming the assertion issued by Twitter “mendacious”, the police mentioned Twitter was making an attempt to “adjudicate the truth”.

The Delhi Police mentioned the web site claims to have materials data foundation “which it not only ‘investigated’ but arrived at a ‘conclusion’” and it should share that data with the regulation enforcement company. “There should not be any confusion about this logical course,” the spokesperson mentioned.

The Delhi Police known as Twitter’s conduct “obfuscatory, diversionary and tendentious” including that,“there is one simple thing to do which Twitter refuses to do. That is, cooperate with the law enforcement and reveal to the legal authority the information it has”.

The Delhi Police mentioned Twitter ought to exhibit transparency in its functioning “which has a bearing on public discourse” and because the matter has been put in public area, it will be important for the police to set the report straight on the tendentious statements made, they mentioned.

‘Not acting at the behest of GoI’

According to police, they’ve registered a preliminary inquiry primarily based on a grievance by the consultant of the Indian National Congress. “Hence, the efforts by Twitter Inc. that portray that this as an FIR filed at the behest of the Government of India is wholly and completely incorrect,” the assertion learn.

Explaining additional, the assertion mentioned, the Delhi Police is conducting a preliminary inquiry on the identical and the matter is beneath investigation.

“Twitter Inc., while placing the cart before the horse, went ahead and declared that the toolkit was ‘Manipulated Media’. This clearly demonstrates that Twitter Inc. was acquainted with the facts of the case and it had material information which was germane to the inquiry by a duly recognised law enforcement agency. Therefore, Twitter was asked, by way of multiple communications, to join the inquiry to provide the information it possesses,” they mentioned.

The Delhi Police mentioned that when served a discover to convey related materials on report, “Twitter India’s subsidiary, TCIPL’s Managing Director, chose to adopt a path of evasiveness instead of cooperation”.

MD’s conflicting stand

Police claimed that TCIPL’s managing director said in his response that he was “merely a sales head, had no role whatsoever in any operations relating to content and thereby refused to join the inquiry”. Police additional added that the declare made by the MD “runs contrary to his very own previous press interviews wherein he elaborately discussed Twitter’s plan to devise methods to identify abusive/ manipulative content. The above interview makes it clear, that Twitter India’s convoluted stance is similar to a deer caught in the headlights,” they mentioned.

The Delhi Police mentioned “the contrived fear mongering by Twitter Inc. is unfounded and misplaced” and that MD was “merely served a notice, not as an accused but to participate in the inquiry as Twitter claims to have been acquainted with certain facts”.

The assertion added that Twitter’s statements “are devised to seek dubious sympathy when they themselves not only refuse to comply with the law of the land”.