According to Indian government, twitter would no more enjoy liability protection against user-generated content in India as the U.S. micro blogging giant has failed to comply with new IT rules.
This is the first statement Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration officially said, Twitter has lost its immunity after repeatedly criticising the company for non-compliance it said.
The public outcry over the issue has fueled fears that American businesses may struggle to do business in a more severe 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 has declined to comment, but has previously stated that it is making every effort to comply.
India’s new IT rules which became effective end of May were aimed at regulating content on social media firms and making them more accountable to legal requests for swift removal of posts and sharing details on the originators of messages.
Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has slammed Twitter for deliberately defying the law and said all social media firms must abide by the new rules.
In recent weeks, as acrimony grew between New Delhi and Twitter, Indian police had filed at least five cases against the company or its officials, including some related to child pornography and a controversial map of India on its career page.
Police in two Indian states have named Twitter India chief Manish Maheshwari in their complaints.
Separately, the state of Uttar Pradesh had challenged the Supreme Court a bar on police action against Maheshwari, after a lower court protected him against arrest over an accusation that the platform was used to spread hate.
(NAN)