Twitter revealed its deep concern about the safety of its employees in India and “the potential threat to freedom of expression” for its users.
This Monday, personnel from Special Cell of Delhi Police visited the offices of Twitter in Delhi and Gurgaon. The purpose of the visit was allegedly to serve a notice asking the company executives to join in a probe regarding the alleged “toolkit” which sought to undermine the Indian government’s response to the pandemic COVID.
Next, Twitter claimed that one company employee, its Chief Compliance Officer, was being made liable for all the content on the platform.
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It must be clarified that it is in the express role of a Chief Compliance Officer to “ensuring compliance with the IT Act” and this person “shall be liable in any proceedings relating to any relevant third-party information, data or communication link made available or hosted by that intermediary where he fails to ensure that such intermediary observes due diligence while discharging its duties”.
True Scoop News explained legal immunity offered in case a social media platform (also called social intermediaries) guarantees the pin-pointing of “first originator” of any message. However, if the social media does not do so in order to preserve the privacy of its users, then the company’s legal immunity will be withdrawn. This then exposes the social media company to be legally liable for all content posted on its platform. And the contact person for this purpose is the Chief Compliance Officer.
Twitter responded to these developments, “We, alongside many in civil society in India and around the world, have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service, as well as with core elements of the new IT Rules. We plan to advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free, open public conversation.”
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It must be reminded that during the Farmer Protests in January and February, when the IT Ministry asked Twitter to remove certain tweets which the government believed to be allegedly “spreading misinformation” with the potential to “lead to imminent violence affecting public order situation in the country”, Twitter had initially stuck to its guns, but when imprisonment of its employees was the next step by the government, then Twitter decided to comply. The company claimed that it complied with about 95% of the requests the government made at the time.
Free speech is a complex concept and the need to balance the stability of the society while allowing enough safety to whistle-blowers and the like so that the state does not turn into a tyranny has always been a tightrope walk.
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