Twitter said that it was expanding the identification and labelling programme for verified accounts run by government institutions, senior government officials and state-affiliated media to countries such as Canada, Cuba, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Honduras, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

India, where the platform has one of the largest user bases, and where it has over the past fortnight faced flak from the government for not acting upon certain accounts and content which were flagged to it as capable of inciting violence, has been kept out the list of countries where the programme is being expanded.

As part of the expanded programme, Twitter will add labels to identify verified accounts of key ministerial personnel such as foreign ministers, ambassadors, official spokespeople, and key diplomatic leaders.

The Supreme Court of India had earlier sent out notices to the Centre and many social media platforms, including Twitter on a petition seeking a mechanism to screen hateful content and fake news being circulated via social media, which could instigate enmity & violence.

Faceoff between GOI & Twitter

A petition by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Vinit Goenka to regulate content on social media platforms had sought a crackdown on “anti-India and venomous messages” sent through social media aimed at provoking violence in various parts of the country.

The court had tagged Goenka’s matter with a bunch of similar petitions already pending before the Apex Court.

The new petition came at a time when the government and Twitter were at odds over 1,300 accounts or posts that were spreading ‘misinformation’ in connection with the farmers’ protests and the Republic Day violence. GOI had asked the micro-blogging site to take those accounts down. Twitter, however, did not take action on some of the accounts that consist of news media entities, journalists, activists, and politicians to keep with their “principles of defending protected speech and freedom of expression.”

Some have observed that an undemocratic provision of law is being applied to its maximum threshold in this case. GOI over the last week had sought to exercise powers under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act to block user accounts critical of the farm bills.

Minister for electronics and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad had warned that social media companies will need to follow India’s laws or face strict action. He had added that the GOI has been working on new rules to make companies such as Twitter and Facebook more responsive to directions and accountable to Indian laws.

On Twitter’s ‘freedom of expression’ explanation, Prasad had said that the GOI was in the favour of freedom of speech and expression but against the abuse of social media platforms for spreading fake news and posts that can spread violence.

He had stated in the Rajya Sabha that, “We respect social media. We also respect criticism. But we will not endure the misuse of social media for fake news and anti-India propaganda. Today from the Parliament, I politely recall the companies, whether it is Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or WhatsApp that they are free to work in India, do business, but they need to respect the Constitution of India, they need to respect the Indian Law.”