On June 5, 2021 the Government of India sent the last notice to comply with the new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The rules became operational from May 26 through government notice. However, failure to comply with the rule would take away the indemnity provided to such social media under section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) pointed out that major intermediaries such as Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, Koo, Sharechat and LinkedIn complied with the rules, except Twitter. Twitter has not shared the details of its chief compliance officer, the resident grievance officer and nodal contact persons, as required under the new rules. The Rule 4(a) mandates that significant social media intermediary must appoint a chief compliance officer (CCO)—a senior executive—who would be held liable in case the intermediary fails to observe the due diligence requirements, also undermines the safe harbour protections.Further, MeITY has pointed out that the Twitter office address doesn’t house this company. These are in direct violation to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
In a gesture of goodwill, the Government of India has provided twitter with some more time to redress the situation. TheMinistry of Electronics and Information Technology(MeITY) has also pointed out that the new rules will enable the citizens of India to resolve their issues on the platform itself in a timely and transparent manner. The Government of India further concurred that, Twitter needs to stop beating around the bush and comply with the laws of the land.
On June 29, 2021 the government had concluded that Twitter in India is no longer an “intermediary” and, therefore, cannot be provided the legal protection that is accorded to Internet intermediaries under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act. The author works as a Ph.D. Research Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta, and the co-author of the book Anthropology For All (2021).