New IT rules | Twitter loses ‘legal protection’ on third party content, fails to appoint officers, Twitter loses legal shield on third party content in India

New Delhi : The troubles of the microblogging platform Twitter are about to increase. It has lost the ‘legal protection’ it had received from the government over third party content. In fact, according to the new rules of the Ministry of IT, it was to appoint a statutory officer, including a managing director in India and other officers on the role of the company, but these officers have not been appointed. Now if a user shares ‘illegal content’ and ‘inflammatory posts’ on Twitter, then the company will face criminal sections of the IPC and police inquiry.

US first company in India to lose protection
The TOI report quoted official sources as saying that Twitter has become the first US social media company in India to be deprived of the government’s “legal safeguard” for failing to appoint officers. Twitter had ‘legal protection’ under Section 79 of the IT Act. Whereas Google, YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram will continue to have this protection.

Twitter will now have to face IPC sections
According to the report, a government source said, “The company was given additional time to follow the new IT guidelines but it has not been able to follow the guidelines within the stipulated time.” We reminded him about this time and again and also gave him extra time. Now Twitter has lost its legal protection. Now he will have to face IPC sections on third party illegal content.

Twitter spokesperson replied
Twitter was to appoint its officers in India by May 25 but the company delayed these appointments citing the Corona crisis, lockdown and other technical aspects. Twitter initially made some of the appointments, but the government rejected them, saying the officers were outside legal advisors or people who were not directly hired by the US company. A Twitter spokesperson in India said it had appointed an “interim” supplementary officer. The spokesperson said the details about the officer’s appointment have not yet been shared with the IT ministry but will be shared soon.