The escalating hostility between Twitter and the Narendra Modi-led government has become an everyday headline for media and industry watchers worldwide. It is not an analogy gone wrong if one compares the tussle to a couple caught in an ego fight.
It is a no-brainer to point out that the Central government is irked over Twitter’s recent actions in the country, including the Sambit Patra-Congress toolkit incident. At the same time, what baffles one is there’s still no clarity on what Twitter’s interests in India are; to be specific, if it chooses social equity over financial equity in the country.
Twitter came into existence with the objective of becoming a platform for the oppressed. And so it has been—a microblogging platform that catalysed the Arab Spring in 2010 to effectively mobilising hospital beds and oxygen cylinders for millions in India as the coronavirus swept through the country. Hence, to belittle the importance of Twitter in a country like India is simply imprudent.
Twitter started off as a place for activism. However, over the years, it has played hand-in-gloves with various governments that helped Twitter expand across geographies. Until it put its foot down and decided to become a freedom of speech evangelist as it acted against Donald Trump (soon after it was confirmed that he was not going to retain power in the US).
That said, Twitter's gameplan in India is yet to be clear. With frequent scrutiny and cases being filed, even bringing to book the top management, one wonders what is preventing Twitter from taking the Central government to court. It has all rights to go to the extent of questioning the constitutionality of the new Information Technology rules. With Twitter losing its social intermediary status due to non-adherence to rules, the Indian government has reduced Twitter to the role of a publisher, while the latter always identified itself as a platform. With the publisher tag, Twitter is now responsible for anything and everything someone posts on the platform. By not challenging the rule, Twitter seems to be in an identity crisis itself—is it a publisher or a platform.
At the same time, Twitter is also trying to adhere to some rules as mandated by the new social media rules. While industry watchers predict that the next natural step for Twitter is to move the Supreme Court, they wonder in the same breath that if Twitter is indeed planning to sue the government, then what was the need for compliance to a select set of rules in the first place. Equally baffling is the fact that despite getting around 90 days, Twitter was simply anticipating a public spat as it failed to challenge the new social media rules in any court. This lack of clarity is definitely hurting Twitter’s image in this battle of perceptions.
That said, one must suspect that Twitter’s game plan is to ruin the Indian government’s global image. With Twitter playing the victim card, India has begun to look like China that has closed its doors to foreign tech companies. The unrelenting promotion of Indian clones of foreign social media platforms by the Modi government adds more colour to the China-like image.
This, in turn, might prove detrimental for India that looks to gain as foreign investments and companies are looking outside China to set up manufacturing centres. India seems to be beaming the message that it might be difficult to do business in the country if a company does not toe the Central government’s line. A public spat and an eventuality that may lead up to Twitter stating publicly that back-to-back police cases and government scrutiny is hurting its day-to-day functioning in the country can, in turn, ruin PM Modi’s plans of Make in India and to promote India as an investment destination.
The Indian government is already in a Catch-22 situation with the arbitration cases going against it in both the Cairn and Vodafone retro tax issues. It wouldn’t want to invite more embarrassment by not allowing a US-company like Twitter to function peacefully in the country. There is already a section of industry stakeholders in the US who are of the opinion that it has become imperative for the Joe Biden government to interfere in the Twitter-India government tussle. And, for India as well as the US, which considers the former a key partner and upholder of peace in Southeast Asia, such a development will be a huge setback.
While there is no clarity as to who stands to lose in this battle of perceptions, it is an undeniable fact that Twitter is a significant player in India, and the country is a key market that the microblogging platform wouldn’t want to forego.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author's and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
