The Centre on Thursday hit back hard at Twitter's latest statement raising concerns over the 'potential threat' to freedom of speech, saying that the US-based microblogging platform is trying to dictate its terms in India, and also wants to undermine the country's legal system.

Maintaining that India has a glorious tradition of free speech and democratic practices dating back centuries, the Ministry of Electronics and IT said in a statement that protecting free speech in India is not the prerogative of a private, for-profit and foreign entity like Twitter, but it is the commitment of the world's largest democracy.