Amid Centre\u2019s ongoing face-off with Twitter, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that the double standards of social media platforms will not be allowed in India. \u201cBe it Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or WhatsApp, action will be taken if these platforms are misused,\u201d the minister said replying to a host of questions in Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWork in India. You have crores of followers here. We respect that. Make money but you will have to abide by Indian laws and the Constitution,\u201d the minister said. The minister\u2019s statement comes a day after the IT ministry expressed its strong displeasure over Twitter\u2019s conduct in the aftermath of Red Fort breach on January 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe have now flagged Twitter. Our department has engaged with Twitter. That\u2019s why I didn\u2019t want to comment on this issue outside and chose the House to raise these questions. What is the matter that when there is violence in US Capitol Hill, social media platforms stand by police investigation but when Red Fort is breached, the same platforms go against the Indian government? Red Fort is the symbol of our pride. We won\u2019t allow these double standards,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat is this? You are trending hashtags supporting massacre, genocide?\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe respect social media a lot. It has empowered common people. Social media has a big role in the Digital India programme. However, if social media is misused to spread fake news, violence then action will be taken,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commenting on the government\u2019s commitment to free speech and individual freedom, the minister said, \u201cThis government is led by leaders who have fought for the freedom of individuals, freedom of media, independence of the judiciary.\u201d \u201cThis includes our Prime Minister, you, Rajnath Singh ji, Prakash Javadekar and also me. Our commitment to freedom of media is complete and total. But we are equally concerned about the security and sovereignty of India,\u201d Prasad said addressing chairman Venkaiah Naidu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Replying to a question on social media being used to interfere with the election process, the minister said, \u201cWe respect the election process of India. If social media platforms are misused to tamper with the election process, our election commission and the government will take stern action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On fake news on social media platforms, the minister said that the ministry of information and broadcasting has a cell to bust fake news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I would urge social media platforms to measure this unbridled exposure on your internal guidelines and take actions. You are showing revenge sex videos, porn videos in an unbridled manner,\u201d the minister said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amid Centre\u2019s ongoing face-off with Twitter, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that the double standards of social media platforms will not be allowed in India. \u201cBe it Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or WhatsApp, action will be taken if these platforms are misused,\u201d the minister said replying to a host of questions in Parliament. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-latest-news","8":"category-local-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/earlypostdaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}