On its failure to appoint statutory officers with new IT rules in India, Twitter has lost the coveted “safe harbour” immunity in India.
Now, its top executives, including the country managing director, could now face police questioning and criminal liability under IPC over legal responsibility below IPC over ‘illegal’ and ‘inflammatory’ material posted on the platform by anyone.
While, Facebook, Google, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram and other platforms remain protected, Twitter is one mega American platform has lost the protecting guard– granted below Part 79 of the IT Act.
“The corporate had been given additional time to adjust to the rules, nevertheless it has didn’t fall in keeping with the brand new IT Guidelines regardless of our repeated indulgence, together with an extension. With this, Twitter has misplaced its safe harbour safety, and now stands uncovered to motion below the IPC for any third-party illegal content material,” said a source speaking to Times of India.
Firms needed to initially appoint the officers by Might 25, however, the process is slowed down due to the COVID-19 lockdown and closures, and different technical challenges faced to enable this.
Notably, Twitter had made steps to appointments initially, however, these have been promptly rejected by the federal government as they have been exterior authorized consultants with US authorities more involved rather than local Indian under the government of India.
When contacted, a spokesperson for Twitter in India informed TOI that it has appointed an “interim” chief compliance officer, including that particulars had nonetheless not been shared with the IT ministry and this is able to occur “quickly”.
“We’re protecting the IT Ministry apprised of the progress at each step of the method. An interim chief compliance officer has been retained and particulars will likely be shared with the Ministry immediately quickly. Twitter continues to make each effort to adjust to the brand new Tips,” the spokesperson said.
However, from the government’s side, they said, “We’ve got not obtained any particulars from Twitter.”
The federal government had on June 5 issued “one final discover” to Twitter, asking it to adjust to the lawful provisions below the brand new IT Guidelines or else danger dropping authorized immunity from any third-party content material posted on the platform. The corporate had then assured the federal government that it could make the appointment soon however, the federal government is still waiting for such and presently, even the latest deadline has been skipped.
Over the years, the social media giant has been a powerful platform to expose viral events, videos, and voices all over the nation. People have vented out their frustrations, especially under new harsh laws and unlawful arrests. In some instances when pro-government people and even BJP members have been pulled up by Twitter for manipulated videos and “fake” news, and people who have posted hateful content had their accounts removes. This has hit the government and thus they now aim to harness more control over Twitter.
Twitter had suspended former President Trump’s account for his apparent call to “incitement”, pro-BJP actor Kangana Ranaut’s account was suspended for her apparent incitement to violence, which had been ongoing. Twitter has suspended more than 70,000 accounts following the Capitol riots in the USA. The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari’s Twitter account was suspended for 12 hours after he posted comments attributed to a call for violence, after which Nigeria suspended Twitter. From these stances, it is evident that Twitter, being a platform for political voices will not allow people to invoke violence and this the ongoing fight between Twitter and Governments of nations.