The controversy over Congress’ alleged Covid toolkit escalated on Monday evening after the Special Cell of Delhi Police sent two teams to Twitter India offices in Delhi and Gurgaon.
The police claimed that the team was sent to Twitter’s office to serve a notice and they wanted to ascertain who is the right person to serve a notice, as replies by Twitter India MD had been very ambiguous.
Also Read | Centre asks Twitter to drop ‘manipulated’ tag For Sambit Patra’s ‘toolkit’ post: reports
The official added that they believe Twitter has some information which is not known to them and on the basis of which they classified BJP leader Sambit Patra’s tweet as ‘manipulated’.
While the Congress slammed the move alleging it was an attempt by the central govt to stifle free speech, the BJP said that Twitter must come clean about the information it has. So what is it that led to Delhi Police sending 2 teams to the offices of one largest social media platforms.
Also Read | Cong alleges BJP citing 'fake toolkit' to defame it, to file police complaint
On May 18, BJP leader Sambit Patra posted documents on Twitter which he alleged were part of Congress Covid toolkit to destroy the image of PM Modi.
In his first tweet he alleged that Congress’ well-applauded relief work amid the pandemic is a more of a PR exercise with the help of “Friendly Journalists” & “Influencers” than a soulful endeavour.
In his second tweet he claimed that Rahul Gandhi wanted to use the pandemic to destroy the image of PM Modi and also alleged Congress workers had been instructed in the document to call the mutant strain as “Modi strain”.
Also Read | 'Toolkit' row: Delhi Police reportedly asks 2 Congress members to join probe
BJP President JP Nadda, union minister Smriti Irani, Piyush Goyal, Kiren Rijiju also amplified the allegations by tweeting with the hastag Congress toolkit exposed.
The Congress denied the allegations and said BJP was using fake documents and toolkit. The Congress also filed a complaint against the Sambit Patra, BJP President JP Nadda and other BJP leaders for forgery and fabricated content.
The Congress then flagged Patra’s tweet to Twitter following which the micro-blogging site tagged his tweets as manipulated media on May 21.
Also Read | FIR against BJP's Raman Singh, Sambit Patra in Congress ‘toolkit’ issue
Hours later, the Centre asked Twitter to remove the tag saying the social media platform cannot pass judgment on a matter under investigation. Centre said Twitter’s decision appeared to be"pre-judged, prejudiced" and a "deliberate attempt to colour the investigation" by local law enforcement agency.
Twitter didn’t remove the tag paving the way for another round of face-off with the Centre. The Congress on Tuesday wrote to Twitter asking it to add manipulated media tag to tweets of 11 union ministers that refer to the alleged tookit.
The ministers are Giriaj Singh, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prahlad Joshi, Dharmendra Pradhan, Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Thawarchand Gehlot,Harsh Vardhan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
Also Read | Toolkit: Cong writes to Twitter, seeks manipulated tag on tweets of 11 union ministers
AltNews, a fact-checking site, based on a study of the metadata, has corroborated the Congress’s version, and there has been no evidence forthcoming on the entire document’s authenticity.
That brings to what is manipulated media and how Twitter identifies such content?
Tagging videos, audio, and images as ‘manipulated media’ is part of Twitter’s efforts to combat fake news. The social media giant says that they may label Tweets that include media that have been deceptively altered or fabricated. In order to determine if the content has been significantly and deceptively altered or fabricated, Twitter uses its own technology or receives reports through partnerships with third parties.
Internet and digital media experts have pointed out that while Twitter has the right to tag tweets as per its moderation policies, there is nothing in the IT law that empowers Centre to order the platform to remove content, it can only request.
