Twitter loses 'safe harbour' shield in India over non-compliance to IT rules
Twitter has lost its 'safe harbour' protection in India over non-compliance with IT rules and failure to appoint key personnel mandated beneath the new guidelines, despite repeated reminders, and the platform will now be responsible for action beneath the Indian Penal Code for third party unlawful content, sources said.
Earlier this month, the government had given one last chance to Twitter to adhere to the brand new IT rules, that arrived to influence on May 26, and had issued a stern warning that failure to stick to the norms will bring about the platform losing exemption from liability beneath the IT Act.
Sources in the federal government confirmed that Twitter has lost the safe harbour immunity, since it failed to comply with the IT rules, and appoint key executives under the new guidelines.
As the resident grievance officer and the nodal contact person nominated by the business, is not an employee of Twitter Inc in India, the Ministry had also not received any concrete information on Chief Compliance Officer, the name, or details, sources said.
Another source said that Twitter's intermediary status and the legal shield it had, ended automatically on May 26, given its non-compliance with new guidelines. Same holds true for any other social media platform, which includes not complied with the necessity beneath the IT rules.
The federal government has confronted Twitter over multiple instances in the past months, including during the farmers' protest and later when it tagged political posts of several leaders of the ruling party BJP, as "manipulated media", triggering a sharp rebuke from the Centre.
The last flashpoint was the delay in complying with the IT rules that mandate large digital platforms to attempt greater due diligence together with appoint a grievance officer, a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer. These personnel must be residents of India.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), on June 5, had said that Twitter's refusal to adhere to the guidelines demonstrated the microblogging site's "insufficient commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform".
The IT Ministry had earlier questioned Twitter over not providing information about the principle Compliance Officer as required beneath the Rules. Also, the resident grievance officer and the nodal contact person nominated by the company, is not a worker of Twitter Inc in India as approved in the guidelines, the ministry had flagged.
When contacted, Twitter did not touch upon queries related lack of the intermediary status.
Twitter on Tuesday said it has appointed an interim Chief Compliance Officer and the facts of the state will be shared directly with the IT Ministry soon.
The US-based company had assured the Indian government the other day that it's in advanced stages of finalising the appointment of chief compliance officer, and that it would submit additional details within a week. That deadline ended on Monday.
A Twitter spokesperson on Tuesday said the business continues to create every effort to comply with the brand new guidelines, and is keeping the IT Ministry apprised of progress at every step of the procedure.
Meanwhile, the federal government has contended that any office address in India mentioned by Twitter is that of an attorney, which is also not as per the rules.
"Despite being operational in India for more than a decade, it really is beyond belief that Twitter Inc has doggedly refused to create mechanism which will enable the persons of India to solve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes, by India based, evidently discovered resources," the IT ministry had said in its notice earlier this month.
The ministry had on June 5, also said that though with effect from May 26, 2021, "consequences follow" given Twitter's non-compliance with rules "however, as a gesture of goodwill, Twitter Inc is hereby given one last notice to immediately adhere to the rules, failing that your exemption from liability available... shall stand withdrawn and Twitter shall be liable for consequences according to the IT Act and other penal laws of India."
The Ministry had warned Twitter that non-compliance will bring about "unintended consequences", including Twitter losing exemption from liability as intermediary beneath the IT Act.
Twitter has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, according to data cited by the government recently.
The brand new IT rules mandate large digital platforms to attempt greater homework, and make sure they are more accountable and in charge of the content that's hosted. Social media companies may also have to remove flagged content within 36 hours, and remove within a day content that's flagged for issues such as for example nudity and pornography beneath the new rules.
Source: www.asianage.com
