June 17, 2021: On Tuesday, India’s technology minister said Twitter Inc. had deliberately refused to comply with the country’s new IT rules, which took effect in late May.
The new rules or the so-called Intermediary Guidelines, announced in February, are aimed at regulating content on social media firms such as Facebook, its WhatsApp messenger and Twitter, making them more accountable to legal requests for swift removal of posts and sharing details on the originators of messages.
The laws also require major social media companies to develop grievance redressal mechanisms and appoint new officials to coordinate with law enforcement. Reuters had earlier reported that the Indian Ministry of Technology had written to Twitter on June 5, warning the company of “undivided results” if it did not comply with the rules. Ravi Shankar Prasad did not directly say on Tuesday whether Twitter had missed out on arbitration, but a senior government official told Reuters press agency that Twitter was now exempt from liability as an arbitrator or host of user content in India.
“Many questions are being raised as to whether Twitter is entitled to secure port access,” Prasad tweeted. “However, the simple fact of the matter is that Twitter has failed to comply with the arbitration guidelines that came into force on May 26.” On Twitter, Prasad added that when it comes to arbitration guidelines, they “deliberately chose the path of deviation.”
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment, although it said on Monday that it was aware of the steps being taken by India’s technology ministry. “An interim chief compliance officer has been retained and details will be shared directly with the ministry soon,” he said.
Twitter is doing its best to follow the new guidelines. The Internet Freedom Foundation, a digital advocacy group based in New Delhi, said the decision rests solely with the courts, not the government.
New Delhi-based digital advocacy group Internet Freedom Foundation said it was only up to courts, and not the government, to decide whether companies such as Twitter remained intermediaries for alleged non-compliance such as appointment of executives.
Growing tensions between India’s government and U.S. big tech have riled firms that have spent millions of dollars to build hubs in their largest growth market, to the extent some are rethinking expansion plans, people close to the matter have told Reuters previously.
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