First India case against Twitter after losing indemnity |
Microblogging giant Twitter has lost indemnity in India for failing to comply with the new IT rules on time, implying the company no longer enjoys legal protection from prosecution over posts from its users. Twitter and other social media giants were supposed to comply with the rules by 25th May 25 2021, but that deadline was postponed citing the COVID-19 lockdown and other challenges. Now, Twitter is the only tech company that has not complied with the rules while others such as YouTube, Facebook, and WhatsApp continues to enjoy legal protection. According to government sources, "Due to their non-compliance, their protection as an intermediary is gone. Twitter is liable for penal actions” under the Indian law just as any publisher. Top officials of Twitter can now face police questioning and criminal action over certain content posted on the platform. Twitter`s diminished legal status in India was highlighted on 16th June night as the company was named in a police case in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. The case is related to an alleged assault on an elderly Muslim man on June 5, pictures and videos of which had gone viral on Twitter. The company has been accused of not removing "misleading" content linked to that incident. A spokesperson for Twitter said that it had appointed an interim Chief Compliance Office and would soon share the details with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology - thus complying with one of the new rules. The company "continues to make every effort" to comply with the guidelines. Meanwhile, messaging app WhatsApp has filed a legal complaint in Delhi against the Indian government seeking to block regulations coming into force on 16 June 2021 that experts say would compel the California-based Facebook unit to break privacy protections. The lawsuit has sought the Delhi High Court declare that one of the new rules is a violation of privacy rights under the Indian Constitution since it requires social media companies to identify the "first originator of information" when authorities demand it. The lawsuit escalates a growing struggle between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s government and tech giants, including Facebook, Google parent Alphabet and Twitter, in one of their key global growth markets.
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