Social media giant Twitter had received letters from the Ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) regarding the removal of manipulated media tag from tweets, but these letters did fall under any provisions of the IT Act 2000 and such was pointed out through a RTI filed by digital think tank Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF).

The IFF took it to the social media giant’s platform throwing light upon MeitY’s letters of removing manipulated media tag that had no connection to any provision under the IT Act, let alone rules empowering MeitY pertaining the same.

A couple of months ago, under the then Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, MeitY had urged Twitter to take down a contentious label that the social media giant was using to tag posts on the microblogging site by some Indian politicians of the ruling party back then.

Soon, the Union minister for electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw responded to a question in Parliament by saying that the topic of labelling user tweets as manipulated media is not covered by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

"On the topic of manipulated media, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has warned Twitter that they are breaking the principle of natural justice, and has requested Twitter to be honest and equitable in their application of the criteria. According to Twitter's Synthetic and Manipulated Media Policy, certain tweets have been labelled as Manipulated Media”, Vaishnaw stated.

“However, no specifics about how this regulation came into effect have been revealed.
On this topic, the government has been in contact with Twitter”, he added.

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, were also enacted by the government, according to Vaishnaw, to provide accountability for intermediary platforms and improve user safety.

Twitter was in violation of these Rules on May 26, 2021, as it failed to nominate important functionaries such as the Chief Compliance Officer, Nodal Contact Person, and Resident Grievance Officer.

Meity has previously described Twitter's actions as a clear overreach that was completely unnecessary. According to the report, Twitter's labelling appears prejudged, prejudiced, and an intentional attempt to colour the inquiry by local law enforcement officials.

It had also stated that Twitter's content filtering casts doubt on its status as a "intermediary," since intermediaries claim immunity from liability for content hosted by them by claiming that they are merely platforms for such user-generated information.

Following that, Twitter did not delete the tags, and the matter escalated into a broader controversy after the company failed to comply with the Intermediary Rules, which took effect on May 26.

However, this is essential considering the second letter which ordered Twitter to halt the practise of labelling doubtful tweets as ‘Manipulated Media’ completely. MeitY has now conceded in its answer that there was no legal basis for the issuance of its letters, says IFF.

"We ask MeitY to avoid from overstepping its legal bounds and going beyond its lawful jurisdiction. We also urge Twitter to improve transparency by making its communications with the Ministry of Justice public, states IFF.