Delhi Police hit back at Twitter in 'toolkit' case, say 'it is seeking dubious sympathy'

Delhi Police on Thursday hit back at Twitter claiming that its statement accusing it of using "intimidation tactics" in the toolkit case was "not only mendacious but designed to impede a lawful inquiry". The Police alleged that the microblogging platform was seeking "dubious sympathy" while refusing to share information it possesses.

Twitter’s “entire conduct” in the last few days has been “obfuscatory, diversionary and tendentious” though it “refuses to do a simple thing”, which is to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies and reveal to the legal authority the information it has, a Delhi Police statement said.

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It said Twitter's latest statements were "devised to seek dubious sympathy" when they themselves not only refuse to comply with the law of the land but also claim to be in possession of material evidence yet refuse to share it with legal authority duly recognised.

The police statement came hours after Twitter said, "We, alongside many in civil society in India and around the world, have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service, as well as with core elements of the new IT Rules".

Read: BJP’s ‘toolkit’ case amounts to misuse of govt power

Delhi Police had "visited" the offices of Twitter in Delhi and nearby Gurugram earlier this week on the pretext of issuing a notice to it to join the probe in connection with a post by a senior BJP leader that the social media giant tagged as "manipulated media". The Congress had accused BJP's Sambit Patra of sharing a "forged" toolkit in its name and Twitter had classified it as manipulated media following which the government asked Twitter to drop the tag.

The "contrived fear-mongering" by Twitter is unfounded and misplaced", as a Twitter official has been asked to join the probe, not as an accused but to participate in the inquiry as Twitter claims to have been acquainted with certain facts.

Also read — Will strive to comply with India's IT and social media guidelines: Twitter

In its statement, Delhi Police said "prima facie, these statements are not only mendacious but designed to impede a lawful inquiry by a private enterprise. Twitter Inc. has taken upon itself, in the garb of terms of service, to adjudicate the truth or otherwise of documents in public space."

It accused Twitter of being both an investigating authority as well as an adjudicating judicial authority when 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, it said.

"However, since Twitter Inc. claims to have material information basis which is not only ‘investigated’ but arrived at a ‘conclusion’, it must share that information with the Police. There should not be any confusion about this logical course," the statement said.

It said Twitter should lead by example in demonstrating transparency in its functioning which has a bearing on public discourse and should proactively bring clarity into what are subject matters of the public domain.

On Patra's tweet, it said Delhi Police has registered a preliminary inquiry on a complaint filed by Congress leaders, and "hence, the efforts by Twitter that portray this as an FIR filed at the behest of the Government of India is wholly and completely incorrect".

"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 recognized law enforcement agency. Therefore, Twitter was asked, by way of multiple communications, to join the inquiry to provide the information it possesses," it said.

It claimed initiallyTwitter India’s subsidiary, TCIPL’s Managing Director, chose to adopt a path of evasiveness instead of cooperation. The Managing Director stated in his response that he was merely a sales head, had no role whatsoever in any operations relating to the content, and thereby refused to join the inquiry.

"It is to be noted that TCIPL’s stance that its Managing Director is a mere sales head 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," it said.