Twitter's local office in New Delhi, India, received an unannounced visit from police on Monday night - after the company flagged a tweet written by a representative of the ruling BJP party as "manipulated media".
In the post, the government representative shared a document that he claimed showed the opposition party Indian National Congress (INC) plans to counter the government's handling of the corona pandemic.
The opposition believes that the document shared on Twitter is forged.
- Since this post has been branded as "manipulated media" by Twitter, it is considered a PR victory for the opposition, says SVT's India correspondent Malin Mendel.
Escalation
In recent months, there has been an unusual amount of controversy between the government and social media platforms.
- In February, the government wanted Twitter to remove hundreds of critical posts in connection with large peasant demonstrations, and in April it was critical posts about how the government handled the pandemic that it wanted to remove from various platforms, says Malin Mendel.
- BJP do what they can to control and control what is said and written on social media.
Of course, you want all the advantages of this attention, but not the disadvantages.
Important tool
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, in principle does not give press conferences where journalists ask questions, and rarely do interviews.
Instead, he communicates directly with the people via Twitter.
- It is an incredibly important tool for the Prime Minister and the BJP, says Malin Mendel.
According to her, the latest incident with a police visit to Twitter's office in New Delhi is an escalation of the tension that exists between the Indian ruling party and social media platforms.