DELHI, NEW DELHI: The Indian government stated in a court filing that Twitter no longer has liability protection against user-generated content in India because the US microblogging behemoth failed to comply with new IT laws. After constantly criticizing Twitter for noncompliance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has now publicly said that the firm has lost its immunity.
The debate and public outcry have fueled fears that American businesses may struggle to conduct business in a more stringent regulatory environment.
According to a document dated July 5, India’s IT ministry told the High Court in New Delhi that Twitter’s noncompliance amounted to a breach of the IT Act, forcing the US corporation to lose its immunity.
The complaint was made by a Twitter user who wished to protest about some potentially defamatory tweets on the platform, and claimed that the firm was not following the new rule requiring the appointment of certain new executives.
Twitter did not respond to requests for comment. Previously, the corporation stated that it was making every attempt to comply.
India’s new IT guidelines, which went into force at the end of May, aim to regulate content on social media platforms and make them more accountable to legal requests for prompt removal of posts and disclosing information on message originators.
Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has chastised Twitter for breaking the law on purpose, saying that all social media companies must follow the new laws.
As tensions between New Delhi and Twitter increased in recent weeks, Indian authorities filed at least five complaints against the company or its personnel, including ones involving child pornography and a contentious map of India on the firm’s career website.
Manish Maheshwari, the CEO of Twitter India, has been identified in complaints filed by police in two Indian states. Separately, the state of Uttar Pradesh has petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s protection of Maheshwari from arrest over allegations that the platform was used to preach hatred./n
