Days after police visited its offices as part of an investigation into marking BJP posts as manipulated, the social media company said it was concerned for the safety of its employees.

Twitter Inc expresses concern for the safety of its staff in India, days after police visited its offices as part of an investigation into how the social media company labeled some ruling party posts as manipulated .

Indian police visited Twitter offices on Monday to notify the microblogging company’s country chief of an investigation into his labeling of a tweet by a ruling party spokesperson as “manipulated media.”

Without referring directly to the Delhi Police action, Twitter said Thursday: “We, along with many members of civil society in India and around the world, are concerned about the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to the application of our terms and conditions. on duty. “

At this time, we are concerned about recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to the freedom of expression of the people we serve.

– Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) May 27, 2021

Members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently shared on Twitter parts of a document they said was created by the main opposition party in Congress and highlighted the government’s failures in management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congress complained to Twitter, claiming the document was bogus, after which Twitter marked some of the posts as “manipulated media.”

Delhi police declined to comment, Reuters news agency said.

Twitter has been battling with the Indian government since February after the Technology Ministry asked it to block content alleging the Modi administration was trying to silence criticism related to the protests by farmers in the country.

In the wake of this confrontation, India announced new IT rules aimed at making social media companies more accountable for legal requests for quick post removal.

The Indian government last month asked Twitter to delete dozens of tweets, including some from lawmakers in opposition parties, which criticized India’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, as cases of COVID-19 hit a world record again.

Twitter on Thursday asked the Technology Ministry to give it three more months to comply with new content regulation rules, which include the appointment of an Indian grievance officer to handle complaints.

Twitter has expressed deep concern that the rules make the compliance officer criminally liable for the platform’s content, adding that the move was overbroad and dangerous.

India’s technology ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new IT rules have sparked legal battles, including a lawsuit brought this week by Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which calls on the Indian government for overstepping its legal powers by passing rules that will force the messaging app to break encryption. end-to-end messages.