Amongst the big tech companies in India, Twitter is currently the odd one out. Google, Facebook, and WhatsApphave already compliedwith India’s new intermediary rules. However, the microblogging platform is yet to do that.
Yesterday, the Delhi high court directed Twitter to comply with these rules within three weeks. Notably, Twitter had asked the government of India forat least a three-month extensionto implement the necessary steps.
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Lawyer AmitAcharya hadfiled the petition against the social network last weekto register a grievance against “defamatory, false and untrue” tweets of some users.
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The petition stated that Twitter doesn’t have a grievance officer based in India,, which is against the country’s IT rules.However, as per Twitter, it has recently appointedan interim local grievance officer in India.
According toIndia’s new IT rules, significant social media intermediaries — any platform with more than 5 million users — have to appoint a nodal officer, a compliance officer, and agrievance officer in India. Plus, they must publish compliance reports regarding complaints they receive every six months.
Twitter has been in a tussle with the Indian government multiple times this year. In February, it was caught up in an issue of first blocking and then unlocking of tweets related tothe long-running farmers’ protestby prominent accounts. Last month, Delhi policevisited Twitter’s offices, related to an investigation where the company applied a “manipulated media” label to some of the ruling party leaders’ tweets.
Story byIvan Mehta
Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.“Ivan covers Big Tech, India, policy, AI, security, platforms, and apps for TNW. That’s one heck of a mixed bag. He likes to say “Bleh.”
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