Mamata Banerjee condemns Centre’s efforts to ‘control’ Twitter

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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday slammed the BJP-led union government over its “efforts to control” Twitter and claimed that the Centre, having failed to influence the microblogging platform, is now trying to bulldoze it.

Drawing a parallel, Banerjee said her government, too, was being meted out the same treatment by the Centre.

“I condemn it; they can’t control Twitter, so they are trying to bulldoze it. They (Centre) are trying to do so with everyone they are unable to manage. They can’t control me, and that is why they are trying to bulldoze my government, too,” Banerjee said while talking to reporters here.

The networking platform has lost its ‘safe harbour’ shield in India over non-compliance to IT rules and failure to appoint key personnel mandated under new guidelines.

It will now be liable for action under the Indian Penal Code for third party unlawful content.

Making light of BJP’s allegations of continued political violence in the state, the chief minister said it was a saffron party “gimmick” and the claims made were completely “baseless”.

“There is no political violence going on in the state right now. There may have been one or two sporadic incidents, but those can’t be labelled as incidents of political violence,” she added.