The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)sent a formal notice to Twitter today in which it mentioned the previous correspondencesdated May 26, 2021 and May 28, 2021.
The tug-of-war between the largest democracy in the worldand the largest microblogging platform has been going on regarding the latter’scompliance with the former’s Information Technology rules designed to assign answerabilityabout the content posted on the platform to either of two possibilities.
Either the social intermediary platform takes theresponsibility by assigning a Chief Compliance Officer or the Governmentwithdraws legal immunity under which the social intermediary platform will be legallyresponsible for every message posted on their platform.
The Ministry expressed displeasure that the platform choseto ignore the implementation of the IT Rules which came into force in the nationof May 26, 2021.
‘Unintendedconsequences’ could follow which includes ‘losing exemption from liability availableunder section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
The Ministry noted that Twitter’s actions demonstrate thecompany’s ‘lack of commitment and efforts’ towards Indian users.
The Ministry cited that this ‘due process of law’ isessential for users to ‘address their grievances and resolves their disputes’.
The Ministry concluded its notice with the ultimatum thatthe exemption from liability mentioned above shall stand withdrawn unless thecompany makes good on the privacy laws, and then the company “shall be liablefor consequences as per the IT Act and other penal laws of India”.
The possibilities for the company are either concede andagree to the demands of the government or pack bags and leave India.