Twitter Loses Its Legal Protection In India Due To The Non - Compliance With The New IT Rules

Twitter has lost its legal protection in India over non-compliance with the new IT rules. According to government sources, a case was filed in Uttar Pradesh against the social media company over Tweets about an assault that the police believed attempted to arouse communal conflict.

As per sources in the Ministry of Electronics and IT, Twitter has not yet complied with the provisions of the new rules that went into effect on May 25. Twitter's protection as an 'intermediary' has been revoked as a result of its noncompliance. There will be no order declaring them non-compliant. Twitter, like any publisher, is subject to criminal prosecution if it violates any Indian law.

Everything comes a day after Twitter announced the appointment of an interim Chief Compliance Officer, the details of whom will be shared directly with the IT Ministry soon.

The first case against Twitter for third-party content was filed last night in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, in correlation with an alleged assault on an elderly Muslim man on June 5.

FIR was launched, Twitter was accused of failing to remove 'misleading' content related to the incident.

Sufi Abdul Samad, the man, claimed that his beard was cut off, and was forced to recite 'Vande Matram' and 'Jai Shri Ram' by an assaulting group.

According to the UP police, it was not a communal incident as implied in tweets. The man was attacked by six men, Hindus and Muslims, who were upset over amulets he had sold them.

The police FIR accuses Twitter and several journalists of instigating 'communal sentiments' by expressing the man's allegations in their posts.

The police also claim that on the night of June 14, they disclosed a press release on Twitter with detailed information and rejecting the communal angle, but amidst the clarification, the tweets were not deleted, and Twitter did not act to get the tweets removed.

The action came after the government gave Twitter one last chance to comply with the new IT rules, citing the microblogging platform's failure to make immediate appointments of key personnel, as required by the new guidelines, which went into effect on May 26.

Regarding this, the US-based company informed the Indian government last week that it is in the final phases of completing the appointment of the chief compliance officer and that it would provide additional information within a week.

Twitter has had several run-ins with the Indian government in recent months, including during the farmers' protest and later when it labeled political posts by many leaders of the ruling BJP as 'manipulated media,' prompting a strong condemnation from the government.

Meanwhile, Twitter is the only major social media platform that has not complied with the new digital laws. Earlier this month, the government issued a stern "last notice" to Twitter, claiming that its refusal proved a "lack of commitment and efforts" to provide a secure experience for the users of India on its platform.