NEW DELHI • Social media company Twitter has called the visit by police to its Indian offices a form of intimidation in its first public comments on the matter.

Twitter reiterated its commitment to India as a vital market, but signalled its growing concern about the government's recent actions and potential threats to freedom of expression that may result.

Most recently, the social network marked several posts by accounts associated with India's ruling party as containing manipulated media - they purported to show a strategy document from the opposition party whose authenticity has been disputed - which prompted the police visit to its offices late Monday.

Congress complained to Twitter saying the document was fake, after which the company marked some of the posts as "manipulated media". The Delhi police declined to comment.

Twitter also joined other international businesses and organisations in criticising new IT rules and regulations that it said "inhibit free, open public conversation".

Yesterday, it urged the technology ministry to give it three more months to comply with the new content regulation rules, which include the appointment of an Indian grievance officer to deal with complaints.

It expressed concern that the rules made the compliance officer criminally liable for content on the platform, adding that the move represented a dangerous overreach.

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

The new IT rules have spurred legal battles, including a lawsuit filed by Facebook-owned Whats-App this week that calls out India's government for exceeding its legal powers by enacting rules that will force the messaging app to break end-to-end message encryption.

BLOOMBERG, REUTERS