The Government of India has withdrawn Twitter's ‘intermediary platform' status due to non-compliance with new IT rules.
The micro-blogging giant has to face fresh heat from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for failing to adhere to norms on compliance redressal mechanism appointing Resident Grievance Officer, Nodal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer.
These firms were given three months to comply with the new IT rules and the period expired on May 26. The IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had earlier said that the government was ready to give the micro-blogger company extra time by a way of goodwill gesture, but they did not comply. Therefore, the efforts were exhausted because of the consequences of the law and not because of the government.. Now, what will happen? They will have to respond to court proceedings, investigative proceedings,” Prasad said.
This, according to the government means that the protection under Section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, accorded to Twitter for being a social media intermediary, now stands withdrawn.
Minister for Law & Justice, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad flogged Twitter for having deliberately chosen the path of non-compliance on what were basic requirements.
Minister has reacted sharply to the counter put forth reiterating emphatically that India does not need a lecture on freedom of speech and democracy from a profit-making company that stays in America. India has free and fair elections, an independent judiciary, media, civil society.
The new IT rules, which were originally announced in February, give users of the platform a forum for redressal for their grievances, These rules are aimed at regulating content on social media firms and making likes of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter more accountable to legal requests for swift removal of posts and sharing of details on the originators of messages.
The contention is if someone puts out any content on Twitter that leads to some form of violence, or violates any Indian law with respect to content, not only the person that has put out the tweet will be held responsible, even Twitter will be legally liable for the content as it no longer has the protection.
There is an ongoing debate on whether Twitter has lost its intermediary status or the protection granted to intermediaries under Indian law. Section 79 of the Information Technology Act grants certain protections to intermediaries on the condition that they fulfil certain obligations and due diligence mandated as per rules.
When these intermediaries do not comply with the court or government order, they become responsible for the content as the publisher and may be criminally prosecuted along with the originator of the content.
