The Government of India has given Twitter “one last notice” as a “gesture of goodwill” to “immediately comply” with the new social media intermediary rules that came into effect on May 26, failing which Twitter can lose the safe harbour protection i.e immunity from being held liable for all the content posted by users on its platform. This legal and criminal immunity is the cornerstone of all social networking sites’ business models.
The government notice is written by Rakesh Maheshwari, group coordinator for cyberlaw at the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY).
It is addressed to Jim Baker of Twitter Inc, USA. Baker is the former FBI attorney involved in the Donald Trump presidential campaign and Russian links during the 2016 election.
The notice says: “It is clear from your response that till date Twitter has not informed about the details of the Chief Compliance Officer as required under the Rules. Further, Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person nominated by you is not an employee of Twitter Inc in India as prescribed in the Rules. The office address of Twitter Inc. as mentioned by you is that of a law firm in India, which is also not as per the Rules…Needless to state, such non-compliance will lead to unintended consequences including Twitter losing exemption from liability as intermediary available under section 79 of the Information technology (IT) Act 2000.”
This is the third communication from the government to Twitter to comply with the new rules. In a press release issued on May 27, Cabinet Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had told Twitter to “stop beating about the bush and comply with the law”.
Since then the Delhi High Court has also said social media platforms including Twitter “have no choice” but to comply with the new rules.
These new rules define “significant” social media platforms as those that have more than 5 million users and require them to name employees as a full-time grievance office and chief compliance officer.
The rules also mandate 36 hours to trace the originator of a post flagged off for child pornography, inciting violence, threatening national security etc.
WhatsApp has challenged this new traceability norm at the Delhi High Court and filed its petition on the morning of the new rules coming into effect.
WhatsApp has invoked the landmark 2017 Justice KS Puttaswamy vs GoI judgement of the Supreme Court that had declared traceability as unconstitutional and against the people’s fundamental right to privacy.
The notice sent by the government to Twitter also states, “The refusal to comply demonstrates Twitter’s lack of commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform. Despite being operational in India for more than a decade, it is beyond belief that Twitter Inc. has doggedly refused to create mechanisms that will enable the people of India to resolve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes, by India based, clearly identified resources. Leave alone proactively creating such a mechanism, Twitter Inc. is in the inglorious bracket of refusing to do so even when mandated by law.”
