New Delhi: The microblogging website, Twitter has faced a setback in India as it has lost its legal immunity in the country. The legal immunity of the social media platform was lost as it failed to comply with the new IT rules of the country. Twitter is the only social media platform in the country that has not adhered to the new laws. So, Twitter will now be liable for penal actions as per Indian law.
‘Twitter to lose its status as an intermediary platform in India as it does not comply with new guidelines, it is the only social media platform among mainstream that has not adhered to new laws,’ government sources said to news agency ANI.
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As per the new IT law, all social media platforms must appoint a grievance officer, a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer, each based in India. Social media platforms violating this will lose their intermediary status and hence would also be liable for criminal action in case of a complaint. Intermediary status provides these platforms the immunity from liabilities over any third-party data hosted by them.
‘The provisions for significant social media intermediaries under the Rules have already come into force on May 26 2021 and it has been more than a week but Twitter has refused to comply with the provisions of these Rules. Needless to state, such non-compliance will lead to unintended consequences including Twitter losing exemption from liability as intermediary available under section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. This has clearly been provided under rule 7 of the aforesaid Rules,’ said a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Further, Twitter was given multiple opportunities to comply with the same, however it has deliberately chosen the path of non compliance.
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) June 16, 2021
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