Amidst rumours that Twitter shall be banned, Union Minister RS Prasad today said that the government is not in favour of doing so. But he made it clear to the micro-blogging platform that complying with the law of the land is a must.

The BJP leader said the fact that half the government, including the Prime Minister of India and the President, being on Twitter shows that the government is fair.

He pointed out that Twitter can't tag some tweets as 'Manipulated Media' while ignoring others. The Minister made a reference to the recent Ghaziabad incident, which was given a communal colour by several Twitter users (including actress Swara Bhaskar) but none of the tweets was tagged as 'Manipulated Media' by Twitter. Since the propaganda happened on Twitter, the Uttar Pradesh police have even lodged a complaint against it.

The Minister pooh-poohed that it usually takes a fortnight for the government to make Twitter remove tweets that show Ladakh as part of China. He iterated firmly that the digital sovereignty of India shall always be protected.

Meanwhile, there is a debate around Twitter's legal status. Will it be tried for all the posts that are deemed problematic by the government now that it has lost its legal shield for not complying with the intermediary rules? It remains to be seen.

The Union Minister also said that not all messages on WhatsApp will be decrypted. Only those leading to law and order issues will be decrypted.