The Central government on Saturday issued a final notice to social media platform Twitter for compliance with the new Information Technology (IT) rules, 2021, failing which “Twitter shall be liable for consequences as per the IT Act and other penal laws of India.”
“Twitter Inc. is hereby given one last notice to immediately comply with the Rules, failing which the exemption from liability available under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000 shall stand withdrawn and Twitter shall be liable for consequences as per the IT Act and other penal laws of India,” the government said.
The move came hours after Twitter removed the “blue tick” verification badge from the personal account of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and several RSS leaders including chief Mohan Bhagwat.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in a notice said that the new intermediary guideline rules have become effective from May 26, 2021, and it has been more than a week but Twitter has refused to comply with the provisions of these rules. Furthermore, govt said that Twitter’s refusal to comply demonstrates its lack of commitment to ‘providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform’
”It is clear from the responses till date that Twitter has not informed about the details of the Chief Compliance Officer as required under the rules,” the ministry’s notice stated.
It is also worthy to understand that the nominated Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person is not an employee of the Twitter Indian branch as per the rules.
Former MyGov CEO Arvind Gupta in a tweet slammed Twitter for suspending accounts on “one sided complaints or their own judgements of correctness.
