These are difficult times for tech and social media companies as governments around the world look to rein them in and control the companies’ growing powers and influence on all aspects of life.

According to a Press Trust of India news dispatch from New Delhi, a special cell of the Delhi Police on Monday evening visited the  Twitter offices in Delhi and Gurgaon, on the outskirts of the Capital, in connection with ”COVID toolkit” probe.

Two teams of special cell were at the Twitter India offices located in Delhi’s Lado Sarai area and Gurgaon, on the outskirts of the national capital, a senior police officer told PTI.

The visits were in connection with the probe into the ”toolkit” matter, he said.

However, the offices were found to be shut as because of the pandemic, the company employees were working from home.

The special cell has sent a notice to Twitter in connection with an inquiry into a complaint regarding the alleged ”COVID-19 toolkit” and sought a clarification from the microblogging site for classifying a related tweet by BJP leader Sambit Patra as “manipulative”, PTI quoted an unnamed official as saying.

“Delhi Police is enquiring into a complaint in which clarification is sought from Twitter regarding the classification of a tweet by Sambit Patra as ‘manipulative’. It appears that Twitter has some information, which is not known to us on the basis of which they have classified it as such. This information is relevant to the enquiry. Special Cell, which is conducting the enquiry, wants to find out the truth. Twitter which has claimed to know the underlying truth should clarify,” News18.com quoted from a statement by the Delhi Police.

The police, however, refused to divulge the contents of the complaint or the identity of the complainant, the website report said.

It appears that Twitter has some information that is not known to the police. This information is relevant to the inquiry, Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal said.

Comments, if any, from Twitter India were not reported by Indian media.

The BJP has accused the Congress of creating a ‘toolkit’ that seeks to tarnish the image of the country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi by calling the new strain of coronavirus as “India strain”.

However, according to news18.com, the Congress has denied the allegation and claimed that the BJP is propagating a fake ‘toolkit’ to defame it. Last week, Twitter labelled as “manipulated media” a tweet by BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra on the alleged ‘toolkit’. Twitter rules say it “may label Tweets that include media (videos, audio, and images) that have been deceptively altered or fabricated”.

MOSCOW GIVES GOOGLE ONE DAY TO REMOVE BANNED CONTENT:Russia’s communications watchdog on Monday gave Google  24 hours to delete what it called prohibited content or be fined and said Moscow could eventually slow down the company’s traffic in the country, Reuters reported.

Russia has already placed a punitive slowdown on U.S. social network Twitter for not deleting banned content, part of a push by Moscow to rein in Western tech giants and beef up what it calls its Internet “sovereignty”.

The watchdog, Roskomnadzor, said it had sent more than 26,000 calls to Google to remove illegal information, including videos containing information on drugs or violence.

“If (Google) does not restrict access to the banned information within 24 hours, it will be fined between 800,000 roubles and 4 million roubles ($10,800-$54,000),” it said.

The watchdog said a repeat offence would be punishable by a fine of up to 10 per cent of the company’s total annual revenue.

“The volume and timing of Google’s failure to remove (banned) content available in Russia is such that traffic slowdowns may be imposed on the company’s services,” the watchdog said.

Google Russia did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Moscow court documents showed earlier on Monday that Google was suing Roskomnadzor in court over the demands that it remove banned content.

Google filed that lawsuit on April 23, documents from Moscow’s Arbitration Court showed, but it was only accepted on May 11 after some administrative issues had been ironed out. A hearing is scheduled for July 14.