Govt gives last notice to Twitter on IT rules

THE CENTRE SAID IT IS GIVING THE SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY ONE LAST NOTICE TO COMPLY WITH THE NEW RULES AS A ‘GOODWILL GESTURE’

The government on Saturday sent a letter to Twitter asking it to share compliance details with the new intermediary guidelines that came into effect on May 25 and said the company’s refusal to follow them demonstrates a “lack of commitment towards providing a safe experience to the people of India”.

It said, as a “gesture of goodwill”, the government was giving Twitter one last notice to immediately comply with the new rules or lose the exemption from criminal liability available to the social media intermediary under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.

Section 79 provides Twitter protection against any kind of criminal action for third-party content posted on the platform.

The rules notified on February 25 mandate companies such as Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook to regulate content, appoint officers liable for compliance, and adopt features such as traceability of messages and voluntary user verification.

Twitter has been at loggerheads with the government since February when the company was asked to block content related to criticism of farm laws and about the protests they triggered. The new rules were introduced later that month. Twitter last week urged the government to give it three more months to comply with the rules.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has moved court against the rules saying the government was exceeding its legal powers. It maintained the rules will force the messaging service to break its end-to-end message encryption.

Twitter also last week said it was worried about the safety of its staff in India. This came days after police visited one of its offices as part of a probe in connection with the tagging as manipulated some posts of ruling Bharatiya Janata Party leaders related to a document allegedly created by the Congress to highlight the government alleged pandemic mishandling.

The Congress maintained the document was fake.

The government last week slammed Twitter saying the “only instance of scuttling free speech on Twitter is Twitter” and “its opaque policies, as a result of which people’s accounts are suspended, and tweets deleted arbitrarily without recourse”. It asked Twitter to comply with Indian laws as the company expressed concerns over “intimidation tactics by the police” and with the “core elements” of the new social media and intermediary guidelines.

In the letter to Twitter’s deputy general counsel Jim Baker, the government on Saturday expressed “dismay” over the company’s response to its communications indicating that it has not fully complied with the new rules.

The government earlier sought details about the compliance, grievance redressal officers, and nodal contact persons from all significant social media intermediaries (with five million users or above) on May 26.

Twitter named an Indiabased attorney but did not provide details about a compliance officer with the government.

Twitter declined to comment on the letter sent to it on Saturday.

The government wrote in the letter that Twitter has not informed it about the details of the chief compliance officer and nodal contact person. It added the resident grievance officer appointed by Twitter is not an employee of Twitter Inc. in India, as prescribed by the rules.

The government said the address shared by Twitter is that of a law firm, which also is not in consonance with the new guidelines.

“Despite being (in) operation in India for over a decade, it is beyond belief that Twitter Inc. has doggedly refused to create mechanisms that will enable the people of India to resolve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes,” the letter said. “Users who are abused on the platform or are harassed or are subject to defamation or specula abuse or become victims go a whole range of other abusive contact must get a redressal mechanism that the same people of India have created through a due process of law.”

The letter was written on the day it emerged Twitter has removed blue verified badges from the accounts of top Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leaders, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat.

The social media company on Saturday separately restored the badge for vice president M Venkaiah Naidu’s account within hours of removing it from his profile.