Twitter has failed to comply with Government rules
Twitter will be considered an intermediary once it follows the new Information Technology (IT) rules and it will no longer be protected from penal action under Section 79 of the IT Act, which absolves social media firms of liability for third party content, if it did not do so, a government official said on Wednesday.
“Now, if there is a case in court, Twitter cannot seek safe harbour under the Information Technology Act. In any case, filed after May 26, Twitter cannot say it is an intermediary and claim exception.”
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules were notified in February and came into force on May 25.
The official said, as a gesture of goodwill, the government gave Twitter extra time to comply with the rules. But Twitter has failed to meet even its own deadline of a week to make the appointments as per the new rules, the official said. The official added that details of the compliance officer’s appointment were yet to be shared with the government.
Twitter on Tuesday said it has appointed an interim chief compliance officer and the details of the appointment will be shared directly with the IT ministry. The decision came after the government gave Twitter one last chance to comply with the new rules as the microblogging platform did not make immediate appointments of key personnel, mandated under the new guidelines that came into effect on May 26.
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Union Information and Technology (IT) Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said that the micro-blogging platform Twitter failed to comply with intermediary guidelines and has "deliberately" chosen the path of non-compliance despite being granted multiple opportunities.
Lashing out at the micro-blogging platform over non-compliance, Prasad said that it is "astounding" that Twitter that portrays itself as the flag bearer of free speech, chooses the path of deliberate defiance when it comes to the Intermediary Guidelines.
"There are numerous queries arising as to whether Twitter is entitled to safe harbour provision. However, the simple fact of the matter is that Twitter has failed to comply with the Intermediary Guidelines that came into effect from the 26 May," Prasad said in a series of posts on homegrown microblogging platform Koo.