Twitter loses legal shield in India over Non-compliance to IT rules

Seems the friendly game with the Twitter is over. The government has confronted Twitter over multiple instances in the past months. The platform will now be liable for action under the Indian Penal Code for third party unlawful content.

Twitter has lost its legal shield in India over non-compliance with IT rules despite repeated reminders. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), on June 5, had said that Twitter's refusal to comply with the rules demonstrated the microblogging site's "lack of commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform".

Earlier this month, the government had given one last chance to Twitter to comply with the new IT rules that came into effect on May 26, and had issued a stern warning that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act.

Twitter had also failed to appoint key personnel mandated under the new guidelines. Yesterday the company has reported on the appointment. However, the name has not announced. Twitter including other social media giants were extremely helpful in helping and connecting people during the second wave of Covid-19, which was appreciated globally.

However, following India’s laws and regulations are paramount for any company. With so much of fake news being spread through social media platforms, it is important to keep a tab on offensive content specially where religious sentiments can be hurt or fake news is spread on COVID vaccination.

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 is true for any other social media platform, which has not complied with the requirement under the IT rules.