The dispute between the social media company Twitter and the Government of India continues. Government of India has taken strict action against Twitter. News agency ANI, quoting government sources, has reported that Twitter has lost the status of an intermediary platform in India due to non-compliance with the new IT rules.
ANI wrote, Twitter has lost the status of an intermediary platform in India due to non-compliance with the new IT rules. Rather than being considered only one platform hosting content from multiple users, Twitter will be directly editorially responsible for posts published on its platform. This means that if there is an allegation against Twitter for alleged illegal content it will be treated as a publisher, not intermediary and liable to penalties under any law including the IT Act, as well as the penal laws of the country .
Earlier, government sources had said that it is the only platform in the mainstream social media platform that has not complied with the new laws.
Let us tell you that in view of the new IT rules of the Government of India, Twitter has appointed Interim Chief Compliance Officer on Tuesday. However, on June 5, the government had written a last letter to Twitter, advising it to follow the new rules immediately. After which Twitter had asked for a week’s time. Earlier, Twitter had appointed an interim officer.
Now it has to be seen that since Twitter has appointed the officer, then what is the stand of the government.
Twitter has been stripped of its right of protection under Section 79 of the Indian IT Act and will now face legal action. If a user makes inflammatory, objectionable or illegal posts on Twitter, then from now on in India, the police will be able to interrogate the top officials including the Managing Director of the company.
FIR against Twitter
With the removal of the right to this protection, an FIR has been registered against Twitter in Ghaziabad, UP for a viral video.
In fact, the Ghaziabad Police has registered an FIR against Twitter, Congress leaders and journalists for the tweet in the case of assault with an elderly person. The elderly man had claimed that those who thrashed him had asked him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. However, the police has denied any communal angle in the case.
Police say that Twitter has done nothing to stop the video related to the case from going viral.
