News Analysis India

Tag: IT rules

  • Editors Guild, experts alarmed over tweak in IT rules

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Editors Guild has expressed concerns over the proposed amendments to IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which authorise the Press Information Bureau’s fact-check unit to declare a news report or content fake.

    According to the draft of IT rules, social media platforms and other online intermediaries will need to remove the content if marked ‘fake’. A press statement issued by the EGI stated that it is deeply concerned by the amendment giving authority to PIB to determine the veracity of news reports. The Guild feels this is akin to censorship.

    “The determination of fake news cannot be in the hands of the government alone and it will result in the censorship of the press,” said a statement issued by Editors Guild president Seema Mustafa.Experts have also flagged the amendment. DigiPub, a consortium of digital news outlets, said in a statement the proposed amendments to IT Rules can potentially become an ‘institutional mechanism to muzzle the press’.

    The ministry had initiated public consultation on amendments proposed to the rules in relation to online gaming, the last date for which was January 17. However, it has now been extended to January 25.Internet Freedom Foundation said the IT Rules, 2021 significantly increased government control.

    NEW DELHI:  Editors Guild has expressed concerns over the proposed amendments to IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which authorise the Press Information Bureau’s fact-check unit to declare a news report or content fake.

    According to the draft of IT rules, social media platforms and other online intermediaries will need to remove the content if marked ‘fake’. A press statement issued by the EGI stated that it is deeply concerned by the amendment giving authority to PIB to determine the veracity of news reports. The Guild feels this is akin to censorship.

    “The determination of fake news cannot be in the hands of the government alone and it will result in the censorship of the press,” said a statement issued by Editors Guild president Seema Mustafa.
    Experts have also flagged the amendment. DigiPub, a consortium of digital news outlets, said in a statement the proposed amendments to IT Rules can potentially become an ‘institutional mechanism to muzzle the press’.

    The ministry had initiated public consultation on amendments proposed to the rules in relation to online gaming, the last date for which was January 17. However, it has now been extended to January 25.
    Internet Freedom Foundation said the IT Rules, 2021 significantly increased government control.

  • Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology proposes changes to IT rules

    By Express News Service

    NEW DELHI/BENGALURU :  In an apparent move to put a leash on social media platforms, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has released a fresh draft of the amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Rules 2021. Last week, the ministry had pulled off the draft amendments within hours after releasing it, and said a new set of rules would be uploaded soon.

    According to the fresh draft, it has been proposed to create an appellate body — ‘Grievance Appellate Committee’.  Users will have the option to appeal against the grievance redressal process of the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, before this new appellate body.

    The Union government has also proposed the requirement by intermediaries to address certain complaints regarding removal of content from a platform within 72 hours, considering the nature of cyber space providing instant communication, outreach and virality.

    The ministry notified that these proposed amendments will not impact early stage or growth stage Indian companies or start-ups. The IT Ministry said the proposed rule requires intermediaries to respect the rights guaranteed to users under the Constitution of India. This has been made necessary because a number of intermediaries have acted in violation of constitutional rights of Indian citizens, it said.

    MeitY has also invited comments from stakeholders in the next 30 days. Stressing the importance of the new amendments, it said in a note, “As the digital ecosystem and connected Internet users in India expand, so do the challenges and problems faced by them, as well as some of the infirmities and gaps that exist in the current rule vis-a-vis Big Tech platform. Therefore, new amendments have been proposed to the IT Rules 2021, to address these challenges and gaps.”

    It will also arrange a formal public consultation meeting by mid-June. The broad principles in these amended rules include that unlawful and harmful information will be quickly removed when reported by users, while also providing the users a reasonable opportunity to respond in case of significant social media platforms.

    MeitY has proposed four amendmentsIt has proposed to bring in a new Grievance Appellate CommitteeThe committee to have power to overrule any decisionMeitY will hold a formal public consultation meeting by June-midGrievances should be addressed regarding content removal from platforms within 72 hours

  • Algorithms of social media platforms should not violate fundamental rights: Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: No algorithm of any social media platform should violate fundamental rights of Indians, and the laws and jurisprudence would need to evolve continuously to keep pace with the changing nature of internet, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has said.

    The remarks by the Minister of State for IT come amid allegations of Facebook’s system and algorithms fuelling hate speech and fake news.

    Recently, revelations by whistle-blower Frances Haugen have led to global concerns that Facebook allegedly put profit before public good, and did not do enough to shed its ‘growth at all costs’ culture that propelled its rise to capture 2.

    91 billion monthly active users globally, including over 400 million in India.

    When asked about what action the Indian government would look at in the backdrop of the allegations made by the whistleblower, Chandrasekhar said there are algorithms that are replacing human intervention and are also prone to failure.

    “We understand that there are algorithms that are replacing human intervention and those algorithms are also prone to failure, which may be just unconscious failure or it could be deliberate bias and that there is a need for algorithms to be designed by these platform that are not infringing the rights of our Indian citizens to Article 14 (non-discrimination), Article 19 (freedom of speech), and Article 21 (right to privacy),” he told PTI.

    These are fundamental rights of Indian citizens and “no algorithm of any platform should be able to violate that, that we are aware of”, Chandrasekhar said.

    Noting that the government is very much aware of the issues of algorithmic bias, Chandrasekhar said he was personally aware about it and had also spoken about the same in 2019 in Parliament.

    There is a “basket of user harm issues” arising every day in online space, the minister said, adding that “there is a need for our laws and jurisprudence to continuously evolve and keep up with the changing nature of the internet and all of the good and the bad”.

    “Now, that is a process that our legal rules and laws, as they evolve, will start addressing like I said, there is a basket of user harm issues that are arising every day. IT Act is from 2008 and 2000. The rules are more recent,” he observed.

    According to him, the government and the IT Ministry understand the constantly evolving nature of cyberspace and the internet, and will continuously engage with industry and users on the issues.

    “We will constantly be trying to evolve a framework where consumers are protected, they find that the internet is safe and trusted for them and that the intermediaries are accountable. This, we will continue to do, and whether it is on algorithms or on any other issue, we will continue to make our efforts in doing that,” Chandrasekhar said.

    Haugen, an employee of the Facebook integrity team until May 2021, leaked tens of thousands of internal documents, including many from employee discussion sites, company presentations and research papers, that have unveiled the inner workings of Facebook.

    She has suggested that Facebook made changes to its “dangerous” algorithms that contributed to divisiveness in society, and realised these tweaks kept people returning to the platform.

    She has also filed complaints against the company with the US securities regulator.

    Following the revelations, the ministry reportedly wrote to Facebook asking for information around the algorithms and processes used by the platform and sought details of steps taken to safeguard users.

    Facebook has recently rebranded itself as Meta.

    As per data cited by the Indian government earlier this year, there are 53 crore WhatsApp users, 41 crore Facebook subscribers and 21 crore Instagram account holders in the country.

    Earlier this year, India enforced new IT intermediary rules aimed to bring greater accountability for big tech companies, including Twitter and Facebook.

    The rules require social media platforms to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and set up a robust complaint redressal mechanism with an officer being based in the country.

    Social media companies are required to take down posts depicting nudity or morphed photos within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.

    Significant social media companies — those with over 50 lakh users — also have to publish a monthly compliance report disclosing details of complaints received and action taken as also details of contents removed proactively.

    According to Chandrasekhar, the IT Ministry is also planning a massive outreach next year in the form of a dialogue with public, consumer forums, academia, industry and others on fast-evolving online space and what more needs to be done to ensure that internet is open, safe and trusted.

  • Google removes 95,680 content pieces in July in India: Compliance report

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Google received 36,934 complaints from users and removed 95,680 pieces of content based on those complaints in July, the tech giant company said in its monthly transparency reports released on Tuesday.

    In addition to reports from users, Google also removed 5,76,892 pieces of content in July as a result of automated detection.

    The US-based company has made these disclosures as part of compliance with India’s IT rules that came into force on May 26.

    On Tuesday, Google said it had received 36,934 complaints in July from individual users located in India via designated mechanisms, and the number of removal actions as a result of user complaints was 95,680 – the highest so far.

    In June, Google had received 36,265 complaints and removed 83,613 pieces of content as a result of user complaints.

    It had removed 59,350 pieces of content in April and 71,132 pieces in May.

    “Some requests may allege infringement of intellectual property rights, while others claim violation of local laws prohibiting types of content on grounds such as defamation. When we receive complaints regarding content on our platforms, we assess them carefully,” Google said on Tuesday.

    The content removal was done under several categories, including copyright (94,862), trademark (807), court order (4), circumvention (3), counterfeit (1), graphic sexual content (1), impersonation (1) and other legal requests (1).

    Google explained that a single complaint may specify multiple items that potentially relate to the same or different pieces of content, and each unique URL in a specific complaint is considered an individual “item” that is removed.

    Under the new IT rules, large digital platforms – with over 5 million users – will have to publish periodic compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon.

    The report must also include the number of specific communication links or parts of the information that the intermediary has removed or disabled access to in pursuance of any proactive monitoring conducted by using automated tools.

    Google’s report showed that it had removed 5,76,892 pieces of content in July as a result of automated detection.

    This number stood at 5,26,866 in June.

    The company said for data related to automated detection processes, it has included data where the sender or creator of the content is located in India.

    “In order to attribute a location to an individual sender or creator, we use data signals such as location of account creation, IP address at the time of video upload and user phone number, as available.

    Please note that senders or creators of content may attempt to evade detection through location-concealing mechanisms,” it said.

    While Google is committed to revealing any bad actors through industry-leading detection tools, reporting based on location attribution should be interpreted as a directional estimate, it added.

    The company noted that when it receives complaints regarding content on its platforms, it assesses them carefully.

    “There are many reasons we may not have removed content in response to a user complaint. For example, some requests may not be specific enough for us to know what the user wanted us to remove (for example, no URL is listed in the request), or the content has already been removed by the user when we process the complaint,” it explained.

    A removal action may be taken on a complaint if the content violates Google’s Community Guidelines, content policies, or local legal requirements, while for automated detection processes, a removal action is taken if content violates its Community Guidelines or content policies, it added.

  • New IT rules: Madras High Court grants more time to Centre to file counter-affidavit

    By PTI

    CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Friday granted 10 more days to the Centre to file its counter-affidavit in response to a batch of PIL pleas challenging the new Information Technology (IT) Rules.

    The First Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P D Audikesavalu which granted time to the central government to file its counter, posted the matter for hearing after 15 days.

    The petitions filed by Carnatic music singer T M Krishna, Digital News Publishers of India, former Editor of The Hindu, N Ram and a senior journalist sought to declare the recently notified Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, as ultra vires of the Constitution and the parent Information Technology Act, passed in 2000.

    Among other things, the petitioners contended that Part III of the impugned Rules imposes illegitimate restrictions on the right to freedom of expression, guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution.

    As part of a set of general principles laid down in the appendix to the Impugned Rules, the Code of Ethics directs publishers to take into consideration a slew of factors beyond those that are stipulated as grounds on which reasonable restrictions can be made on speech under Article 19(2).

    For example, it directs publishers to “take into consideration India’s multi-racial and multi-religious context and exercise due caution and discretion when featuring the activities, beliefs, practices and views of any racial or religious group.”

    These directions are bound to force the hand of publishers to act against the interests of preserving the marketplace of ideas and in the interests of their own businesses.

    What more, these directions will also lead directly to the restriction of speech on unconstitutional grounds.

    For instance, the Inter Departmental Committee constituted under the Impugned Rules will be at liberty to recommend to the central government the speech which the committee finds offensive to a person’s religious belief ought to be removed, although Article 19(2) permits no such restriction on such a speech.

    The new rules, thus, breached Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, petitioners said.

    The new Rules are ultra vires the IT Act 2000 too, as no part of the Act confers power on the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to regulate digital news media or online content producers through an Inter-departmental committee or otherwise and as such the rules made under Part IIl are wholly ultra vires the purported parent Act, the petitioners further contended.

  • Appointed permanent officers in compliance of new IT Rules, Twitter tells HC

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Twitter Inc Friday informed the Delhi High Court that it has appointed a Chief Compliance Officer, Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person on permanent basis in compliance of the new Information Technology (IT) Rules.

    The court, however, said the affidavit filed by the microblogging platform in this regard is not on record and asked Twitter to ensure that it is brought on record.

    Justice Rekha Palli noted that the copies of the affidavit have been served to other parties, including the Centre’s counsel who shall come back with instructions on August 10.

    Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya, representing Twitter, said the company has appointed permanent officials for the posts of CCO, RGO and Nodal Contact Person on August 4 in compliance of the new IT Rules and has also filed an affidavit in compliance of the court’s earlier order.

    During the hearing, the court said, “so they are in compliance now?” To this Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma, representing the Centre, said, “Seemingly so but we need to verify.”

    The high court had earlier expressed displeasure over Twitter Inc for appointing a “contingent worker” as CCO and had said the microblogging platform was non-compliant with the new IT Rules.

    It had noted that while the rules mandated appointment of a key managerial person or a senior employee as CCO, Twitter had disclosed in its affidavit that it had appointed a “contingent worker” through a third party contractor.

    It had directed Twitter to not only disclose all the details pertaining to the appointment of the CCO as well as the Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) but also clarify as to why a Nodal Contact Person had not been appointed yet and by when the position will be filled.

    The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 seek to regulate dissemination and publication of content in cyber space, including social media platforms, and were notified in February by the central government.

    Petitioner-lawyer Amit Acharya, represented by senior advocate G Tushar Rao, has claimed that he came to know about the alleged non-compliance of IT Rules by Twitter when he tried to lodge a complaint against a couple of tweets.

    The court had earlier granted time to Twitter to file an affidavit to show compliance with the IT Rules.

    The Centre had said in its affidavit that Twitter failed to comply with India’s new IT Rules, which could lead to its losing immunity conferred under the IT Act.

  • Delhi HC to hear on August 27 pleas of Facebook and WhatsApp challenging new IT Rules

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Friday said it will hear on August 27 the pleas by Facebook and WhatsApp challenging the new IT rules for social media intermediaries, requiring the messaging app to “trace” chats and make provisions to identify the first originator of information, on the ground that they violate the right to privacy and are unconstitutional.

    A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh listed the matter for August 27 after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, said he was in some difficulty and urged the court to adjourn the hearing.

    The request was not opposed by senior advocates Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for WhatsApp and Facebook respectively.

    The new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 were announced by the government on February 25 and requires large social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp to comply with the norms by May 25.

    The Facebook owned WhatsApp in its plea said the requirement of intermediaries enabling the identification of the first originator of information in India upon government or court order puts end-to-end encryption and its benefits “at risk”.

    WhatsApp LLC has urged the high court to declare Rule 4(2) of the Intermediary Rules as unconstitutional, ultra vires to the IT Act and illegal and sought that no criminal liability be imposed on it for any alleged non-compliance with Rule 4(2) which requires to enable the identification of the first originator of information.

    WhatsApp, which has arrayed the Centre through the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology as a party to the petition, said the traceability provision is unconstitutional and against the fundamental right to privacy.

    The plea said that the traceability requirement forces the company to break end-to-end encryption on its messaging service, as well as the privacy principles underlying it, and infringes upon the fundamental rights to privacy and free speech of the hundreds of millions of citizens using WhatsApp to communicate privately and securely.

    It said WhatsApp enables government officials, law enforcement, journalists, members of ethnic or religious groups, scholars, teachers, students, and the like to exercise their right to freedom of speech and expression without fear of retaliation.

    “WhatsApp also allows doctors and patients to discuss confidential health information with total privacy, enables clients to confide in their lawyers with the assurance that their communications are protected, and allows financial and government institutions to trust that they can communicate securely without anyone listening to their conversations,” it said.

    “There is no way to predict which message will be the subject of such a tracing order. Therefore, the petitioner would be forced to build the ability to identify the first originator for every message sent in India on its platform upon request by the government forever. This breaks end-to-end encryption and the privacy principles underlying it, and impermissibly infringes upon users’ fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech,” the petition said.

    It claimed that Rule 4(2) infringes upon the fundamental right to privacy without satisfying the three-part test set forth by the Supreme Court in KS Puttaswamy judgement, that is, legality, necessity and proportionality.

    It also said that the rule violates the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression as it chills even lawful speech and citizens will not speak freely for fear that their private communications will be traced and used against them, which is antithetical to the very purpose of end-to-end encryption.

    Rule 4(2) states that a significant social media intermediary which provides services primarily in the nature of messaging shall enable the identification of the first originator of the information on its computer resource as may be required by a judicial or government order.

    As per data cited by the government, India has 53 crore WhatsApp users, 44.8 crore YouTube users, 41 crore Facebook subscribers, 21 crore Instagram users, while 1.75 crore account holders are on microblogging platform Twitter.

    The new rules were introduced to make social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram — which have seen a phenomenal surge in usage over the past few years in India — more accountable and responsible for the content hosted on their platform.

    Social media companies will have to take down posts depicting nudity or morphed photos within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.

    Notably, the rules require significant social media intermediaries — providing services primarily in the nature of messaging — to enable identification of the “first originator” of the information that undermines sovereignty of India, security of the state, or public order.

    This could have major ramifications for players like Twitter and WhatsApp.

  • Twitter non-compliant with IT Rules on May 26, named officials as contingent arrangement later: MoS IT

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter was non-compliant with the IT rules on May 26 when the new regulations came into effect but the microblogging platform has subsequently appointed a chief compliance officer and a resident grievance officer as a contingent arrangement, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

    Twitter has also informed the IT Ministry about its physical contact address in India, and has published a compliance report for June 2021, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

    Chandrasekhar also said the statement made by Twitter earlier in May expressing concerns over potential threat to freedom of expression and staff safety was possibly an effort to divert attention from its non-compliance to IT Rules and Indian laws at that stage.

    The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 notified on February 25, 2021 have become fully effective from May 26, 2021, including for additional due diligence to be followed by Significant Social Media Intermediaries (SSMIs), he said.

    “On that day, Twitter was non-compliant. Subsequently, they have appointed Chief Compliance Officer and a Resident Grievance Officer as a contingent arrangement and have also informed the Ministry about physical contact address in India. They have also published the compliance report of June 2021,” he said.

    The minister went on to add that major digital platforms, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and WhatsApp, have informed this ministry regarding appointment of chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer as well as their physical contact addresses in India.

    They have also started publishing a monthly compliance report, he informed the Upper House.

    “In case of non-compliance with the Rules, the intermediaries including SSMIs shall lose their exemption from liability under section 79 of IT Act and rule 7 of the above said Rules becomes applicable,” Chandrasekhar said.

    On a question about Twitter’s statement on May 27 airing concerns over potential threat to freedom of expression and safety of its employees in India, Chandrasekhar asserted that freedom of speech and expression is a constitutionally guaranteed Fundamental Right and the company’s statement was “possibly an effort to divert the attention” from the non-compliance to the Information Technology rules.

    “The statement of Twitter was possibly an effort to divert the attention from the non-compliance to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 and Indian laws at that stage,” he said.

    The minister emphasised that the government is committed to the growth of a vibrant technology and internet ecosystem in the country.

    “Government has also assured that representatives of social media platforms, including Twitter, remain safe in India and there is no threat to their personal safety and security,” he pointed out.

    To another question on whether the government would reconsider the guidelines that suggest indirectly the breaking of end-to-end encryption of messages, Chandrasekhar said the rules “do not seek breaking the end-to-end encryption”.

    Neither the IT Act nor the new social media rules contravene freedom of speech and expression or right to privacy, he added.

  • WhatsApp banned two million Indian accounts during May 15-June 15 period: Report

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: WhatsApp banned two million Indian accounts while it received 345 grievance reports between May 15 and June 15, the company said in its maiden monthly compliance report as mandated by the IT rules.

    The new IT rules require large digital platforms — with over five million users — to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.

    “Our top focus is preventing accounts from sending harmful or unwanted messages at scale. We maintain advanced capabilities to identify these accounts sending a high or abnormal rate of messages and banned two million accounts in India alone from May 15-June 15 attempting this kind of abuse,” WhatsApp said on Thursday.

    WhatsApp clarified that more than 95 per cent of such bans are due to the unauthorised use of automated or bulk messaging (spam).

    “We expect to publish subsequent editions of the report 30-45 days after the reporting period to allow sufficient time for data collection and validation,” WhatsApp said in the report.

    The Facebook-owned company explained that the number of accounts banned have risen significantly since 2019 as the sophistication of systems has increased, and “so we are catching more accounts even as we believe there are more attempts to send bulk or automated messages”.

    The vast majority of these accounts are banned proactively, without relying on any user reports, it added.

    About eight million accounts are banned/disabled globally on an average per month.

    WhatsApp said besides the behavioural signals from accounts, it relies on available “unencrypted information” including user reports, profile photos, group photos and descriptions as well as advanced AI tools and resources to detect and prevent abuse on its platform.

    In the report, WhatsApp said it had received 345 reports in total, cutting across categories such as ban appeal, account support, product support, safety issues and others.

    Against this, 63 accounts were “actioned” by WhatsApp during May 15-June 15, 2021.

    WhatsApp said user reports received by the platform via the grievance channel/s are evaluated and responded to.

    Majority of users who reach out to WhatsApp are either aiming to have their account restored following an action to ban them or reaching out for product or account support, it added.

    ‘Accounts Actioned’ denotes reports where WhatsApp took remedial action based on the report.

    Taking action denotes either banning an account or a previously banned account being restored as a result of the complaint.

    The IT rules — which came into effect on May 26 — mandate that significant digital platforms include the number of specific communication links or parts of information they proactively remove by using automated tools.

    Other platforms like Google, Koo and Twitter have already submitted their compliance reports.

    Instagram and Facebook have also submitted their reports.

    The IT rules have been designed to prevent abuse and misuse of digital platforms, and offer users a robust forum for grievance redressal.

    Under these rules, social media companies will have to take down flagged content within 36 hours, and remove within 24 hours content that is flagged for nudity and pornography.

    The rules also mandate appointment of three key personnel — grievance officer, chief compliance officer and nodal officer.

    These officials need to be residents in India.

    Non-compliance with the IT rules would result in these platforms losing their intermediary status that provides them immunity from liabilities over any third-party data hosted by them.

  • Received 94 grievances, actioned 133 URLs in May 26-June 25: Twitter compliance report

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Twitter received 94 grievances and “actioned” 133 URLs between May 26 and June 25, the microblogging platform said in its maiden monthly compliance report as mandated by the IT rules.

    The US-based company, which has been in the eye of a storm over its failure to comply with the new IT rules in India, has also named Vinay Prakash as its resident grievance officer for India to comply with the said rules.

    Twitter, in the report titled ‘India Transparency Report: User Grievances and Proactive Monitoring July 2021’, said it had received 94 grievances via its grievance officer-India channel between May 26, 2021, and June 25, 2021, that included content on Twitter.

    This includes complaints received from individual users with accompanying court orders.

    The majority of complaints received in this channel during the reporting period fell into categories including defamation (20), abuse/harassment (6), sensitive adult content (4), impersonation and privacy infringement (3 each), IP-related Infringement (1), and misinformation/synthetic and manipulated media (1).

    The total number of URLs actioned in these categories stood at — defamation (87), abuse/harassment (38), sensitive adult content (nil), impersonation (1), privacy infringement (6), IP-related infringement (nil), and misinformation/synthetic and manipulated media (1), as per the report.

    “In addition to the above data, we processed 56 grievances which were appealing Twitter account suspensions.

    These were all resolved and the appropriate responses were sent,” Twitter said.

    It added that the platform “overturned seven of the account suspensions based on the specifics of the situation, but the other accounts remain suspended”.

    In a separate category — ‘Proactive Monitoring Data’, Twitter said 18,385 accounts were suspended over the issue of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and similar content, while 4,179 accounts were suspended for promotion of terrorism.

    Twitter, however, said the ‘Proactive Monitoring Data’ represents global actions taken, and not just actions related to content from India.

    ‘Proactive Monitoring’ refers to content proactively identified by employing internal proprietary tools and industry hash sharing initiatives, it added.

    Twitter said each user complaint received via the India grievance channel is assessed under its terms of service (ToS) and rules, and any content that is determined to be in violation is “actioned” in line with its range of enforcement options.

    This includes tweet level enforcement (like labeling of tweets, limiting visibility and removal), direct message-level enforcement and Account-level enforcement ( includes permanent suspension) among other actions.

    Twitter noted that going forward, it will publish this report on a monthly basis and that it will make improvements over time, based on feedback received from the government, or in accordance with internal changes that allow it to provide more granular data.

    Companies including Google, Facebook and Koo have already published their maiden compliance reports as required under the IT rules.

    Facebook had said it “actioned” over 30 million content pieces across 10 violation categories during May 15-June 15 in the country, while Instagram took action against about two million pieces across nine categories during the same period.

    This data was a part of an interim report on July 2 providing information on the number of content Facebook removed proactively during May 15-June 15.

    The final report will be published on July 15, containing details of user complaints received and action taken.

    The July 15 report will also contain data related to WhatsApp, which is part of Facebook’s family of apps.

    Google, in its report, had stated that 27,762 complaints were received by Google and YouTube in April this year from individual users in India over alleged violation of local laws or personal rights, which resulted in removal of 59,350 pieces of content.

    Koo, in its report, had said it proactively moderated 54,235 content pieces, while 5,502 posts were reported by its users during June.

    India is a major market for global digital platforms.

    As per data cited by the government earlier this year, India has 53 crore WhatsApp users, 41 crore Facebook subscribers and 21 crore Instagram users.

    Koo, a homegrown rival to Twitter, has over 60 lakh users.

    Under the new IT rules, large digital platforms (with over 50 lakh users) are required to publish periodic compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken thereon.

    The report has to also include the number of specific communication links or parts of information that the intermediary has removed or disabled access to in pursuance of any proactive monitoring conducted by using automated tools.

    Twitter had courted controversy over the new social media rules, and the Indian government had confronted Twitter over deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the IT rules, despite repeated reminders.

    Twitter, which has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, lost its legal shield as an intermediary in India, becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

    On July 8, Twitter had informed the Delhi High Court that it has appointed an interim chief compliance officer, who is a resident of India, and that it will make an endeavour to fill the regular position within eight weeks as per the IT rules.

    The Delhi High Court had granted two weeks’ to Twitter Inc to file an affidavit, notarised in the US, on compliance with the IT rules and had made it clear that it was not extending any protection to the microblogging platform.

    The High Court had said the Centre was free to take action against Twitter Inc in case of any breach of the IT Rules.