News Analysis India

Tag: Twitter

  • Twitter sends notices to cartoonist Manjul, other prominent users on requests from law enforcement agencies

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Unnamed law enforcement agencies have asked Twitter to take down certain tweets of popular cartoonist Manjul, fact-checking website Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair and others, over alleged violation of law.

    Manjul, Zubair and retired IAS officer Surya Pratap Singh have shared screenshots of the notice sent by the microblogging platform on their Twitter handles over the last few days.

    Sources said the Ministry of Electronics and IT was not involved in sending these legal requests to Twitter.

    It wasn’t clear which agencies have flagged these tweets by these users and for what violations.

    Emails sent to Twitter did not elicit a response.

    Meanwhile, the screenshot shared by Manjul showed Twitter as saying: “In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that Twitter has received a request from Indian law enforcement regarding your Twitter account @MANJULtoons, that claims the content violates the law(s) of India”.

    It further stated that Twitter has “not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request”.

    Twitter, in its notice, said it is the company’s policy to notify users if it receives a legal request from an authorised entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account.

    Twitter further informed the account holders that while the platform is unable to provide legal advice, “we want you to have an opportunity to evaluate the request and, if you wish, take appropriate action to protect your interests”.

    “This may include seeking legal counsel and challenging the request in court, contacting relevant civil society organisations, voluntarily deleting the content (if applicable), or finding some other resolution,” Twitter added.

    Mohammed Zubair and Surya Pratap Singh also shared screenshots with similarly worded notices from Twitter on their own accounts.

    These three users each have lakhs of followers on the platform.

    Twitter has had several faceoffs with the Indian government over the past months, including during the farmers’ protest and later when it tagged political posts of several leaders of the ruling party BJP as “manipulated media”.

    Twitter has also been facing heat for delay in complying with the IT rules that mandate large digital platforms to undertake greater due diligence and make them more accountable and responsible for the content hosted by them.

    Social media companies will have to take down flagged content within 36 hours, and remove within 24 hours content that is flagged for issues such as nudity and pornography under the new rules.

    Under the rules, significant social media intermediaries — those with over 50 lakh users — are required to appoint a grievance officer, a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer.

    These personnel have to be residents in India.

    Earlier this week, Twitter assured the Indian government that it is in advanced stages of finalising the appointment of chief compliance officer as required under the new IT rules, and that it will submit additional details within a week.

    Twitter has also stated that India will be one of the first countries in which it pilots a new approach of building an in-market team to “locally tailor” its global product to the needs of the region.

    As part of its strategy, the company is scouting for a ‘Staff Designer’, who will help the platform establish a bespoke product strategy for Twitter in India and execute against it with support from a dedicated local team.

    Twitter has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, as per data cited by the government recently.

  • Trying to comply with new IT rules, says Twitter

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: After the Centre’s “one last notice” to comply with the new IT rules, Twitter has written to the government that it was making efforts to comply with the guidelines.

    In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said: “Twitter has been and remains deeply committed to India, and serving the vital public conversation taking place on the service. We have assured the Government of India that Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new Guidelines, and an overview of our progress has been duly shared. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian Government.” 

    Since the notification of the new rules in February, there has been a tussle between the government and Twitter and other social media intermediaries which were given three months to comply.

    According to a news agency, Twitter has written to the government that it was in advanced stages of finalising a chief compliance officer as per the new IT rules and that additional details will be submitted within a week. 

    ​This comes after the Centre’s recent notice saying it was giving Twitter ‘one final notice’ to comply.

  • Twitter blocks Punjabi singer JazzyB, three other accounts, cites ‘legal demand’ as reason

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Microblogging platform Twitter has “withheld” the accounts of Punjabi singer JazzyB, hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion and two others in response to a legal demand in India, even as it draws flak over delay in complying with the new IT rules in the country.

    According to an information on Lumen database, Twitter received legal request from the Indian government on June 6 for actioning four accounts, including that of JazzyB.

    Requests received by Twitter for withholding content are published on Lumen database – an independent research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content.

    Users checking Jazzy B’s account are shown a message saying “account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand”.

    When contacted, a Twitter spokesperson said when it receives a valid legal request, it reviews it under both the Twitter Rules and local law.

    “If the content violates Twitter Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only,” the spokesperson added.

    The spokesperson noted that in all cases, it notifies the account holder directly so that they’re aware that the company has received a legal order pertaining to the account.

    “We notify the user(s) by sending a message to the e-mail address associated with the account(s), if available. Twitter is committed to the principles of openness, transparency, details of the requests to withhold content have been published on Lumen,” the spokesperson said.

    Reports suggest that Jazzy B had frequently tweeted in support of farmers’ protests.

    Earlier this year, more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

    Over the past many months, Twitter has been embroiled in a number of issues.

    ALSO READ: New IT rules -Twitter will not lose legal cover, contend legal experts

    Twitter had drawn flak after it marked several tweets by ruling BJP leaders on an alleged strategy document of the Opposition to target the government over COVID as containing ‘manipulated media’, triggering a sharp rebuke from the government.

    The row over Twitter’s handling of certain messages had recently blown up into all-out war of words between the Centre and the social media platform.

    Last week, the government issued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to “immediately” comply with the new IT rules and warned that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act.

    Twitter has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, as per data cited by the government recently.

    The new IT rules for social media companies that came into effect last month mandate large platforms like Facebook and Twitter to undertake greater due diligence and make these digital platforms more accountable and responsible for the content hosted by them.

    The rules also 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 the sovereignty of India, the security of the state, or public order.

    The new IT rules require significant social media intermediaries – those with other 50 lakh users – to appoint a grievance officer, nodal officer and a chief compliance officer.

    These personnel are required to be resident in India.

    Under the new 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, pornography etc.

    The Centre had said the new rules are designed to prevent abuse and misuse of platforms, and offer users a robust forum for grievance redressal.

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

    In other words, they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints.

  • Twitter seeks more time from government to comply with new IT rules

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Social media platform Twitter is learnt to have approached the government seeking more time to comply with the new IT rules. According to sources, the micro-blogging site has said that it intends to comply with the rules but needs more time due to the pandemic situation in India.

    “Twitter has written to Meity seeking more time to comply with the IT rules. It has expressed its intent to comply with the rules but has been unable to do so because of the pandemic,” a source told PTI. The response from Twitter comes after the government, last week, issued a strongly-worded final notice to the company regarding its non-compliance with the new rules.

    When contacted, a Twitter spokesperson said Twitter has been and remains deeply committed to India, and serving the vital public conversation taking place on the service. “We have assured the Government of India that Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new guidelines, and an overview on our progress has been duly shared. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian Government,” the spokesperson said.

    ALSO READ| Sorry, there can be no Twitter Republic

    In its notice, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) had said that Twitter’s refusal to comply with the rules demonstrated the micro-blogging site’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 mechanism 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,” the ministry had said.

    The new IT rules for social media companies that came into effect last month mandate large platforms like Facebook and Twitter to undertake greater due diligence and make these digital platforms more accountable and responsible for the content hosted by them.

    The rules also 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 the sovereignty of India, the security of the state, or public order.

    Under the rules, significant social media intermediaries — those with over 50 lakh users — are required to appoint a grievance officer, a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer. These personnel have to be residents in India.

    Further, social media companies will have to take down flagged content within 36 hours, and remove within 24 hours content that is flagged for issues such as nudity and pornography.

    As per the ministry’s notice, though with effect from May 26, 2021, “consequences follow” given Twitter’s non-compliance with rules, “as a gesture of goodwill, Twitter Inc is hereby given one last notice to immediately comply with the rules, failing which the exemption from liability available… shall stand withdrawn and Twitter shall be liable for consequences as per the IT Act and other penal laws of India”.

    However, the notice did not mention about a specific date for the micro-blogging site to comply with the rules. Non-compliance with the rules would result in these platforms losing their intermediary status that provides them immunity from liabilities over any third-party data hosted by them.

    In other words, they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints. According to the central government, the new rules are designed to prevent abuse and misuse of platforms, and offer users a robust forum for grievance redressal.

  • Twitter lost BJP’s interest; became burden for govt: Saamana

    The editorial believes Twitter has lost the political interest of BJP as the opposition has started responding to its alleged quot;false propaganda quot;.

  • Focus on vaccination rather than fighting with Twitter: NCP to Centre

    Twitter said as per rules, the blue badge and verified status could be automatically removed from an account if it is incomplete or inactive for six months.

  • New IT rules: Twitter will not lose legal cover, contend legal experts

    Express News Service
    NEW DELHI: Amid the ongoing face-off between the Centre and social media platforms, legal experts opined that the latter would not be liable directly for messages posted by users on their websites, in view of Section 79 of the Information and Technology Act, 2000.

    Microblogging site Twitter was on Saturday served a final notice to comply with the new IT rules that mandate the platform to appoint India- based compliance and grievance officers among other clauses, failing which it will face consequences.

    But Supreme Court advocate K V Dhananjay said, “If we assume that Twitter loses protection under Section 79, even then it does not automatically suffer because user A posts a message that user B thinks is defamatory to him. User B simply cannot rush to a criminal cour t against Twitter on the ground of criminal defamation.”

    He reasoned that “if Twitter cannot be shown to be specifically aware of such content on its website, it cannot be imputed with criminal intent. Unless a criminal court is prima facie satisfied with Twitter intentionally hosting the content in question, it cannot issue summons to Twitter to stand trial, as police investigations do not happen in criminal defamation cases. So, Twitter losing intermediary status only plays out slowly and the consequences may not be visible for quite some time.”

    Domain expert and lawyer Ankur Raheja said, “Though the government is right now concentrating on giant social media companies only, the scope of new intermediary guidelines is wide enough to bring in its preview many SMEs as well like domain/ hosting or other small online companies. Many of them could be unaware of the compliance requirements right now.”

    Another Supreme Court lawyer D K Mahant cited messaging platform Telegram’s case, which he fought before the Delhi High Court.

    “There have been various litigations against Telegram, including a copyright lawsuit, which I fought before the Delhi High Court this January. Telegram undertook before the high court to not only remove the identified content but also any future content within 48 hours of Telegram being informed of the copyright infringement. Hence, in my view the provisions are working, the intermediaries are following them,” he added.

    As the law stands

    Section 79 of the IT Act protects intermediaries if they unknowingly host illegal or unlawful content. When alerted about any objectionable content through a court order or by the Centre, they are expected to remove it.

  • Government fighting for blue tick, be self-reliant for Covid vaccine, says Rahul Gandhi; BJP hits back

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday took a swipe at the Modi government, saying it is fighting for a blue tick while leaving people to become “aatmanirbhar” (self-reliant) to get Covid vaccines.

    Hitting back at the Congress leader, the BJP said he should get out of social media and work on the ground.

    The party also asked him to speak to chief ministers of Congress-ruled states regarding alleged scams and irregularities in the Covid vaccination programme there.

    Gandhi’s remarks came a day after outrage over the removal of ‘blue tick’ badge from the personal accounts of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and RSS top functionaries, including Mohan Bhagwat, by Twitter, only to restore it later.

    “The Modi government is fighting for the blue tick. If you want a Covid vaccine, then be self-reliant,” he said in a sarcastic tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag “#Priorities”.

    Taking a dig at Gandhi, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said doing politics on Twitter is his (Gandhi’s) “most important subject” and “biggest platform”.

    Patra asserted that the Modi government has done an admirable job in spearheading such a big inoculation programme and providing free ration to the poor.

    Meanwhile, the former Congress president also talked about stopping language discrimination after a Delhi government hospital asked its nurses not to converse in Malayalam.

    The hospital order has been revoked.

    “Malayalam is as Indian as any other Indian language. Stop language discrimination,” Gandhi said in another tweet.

    Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also shared the concern and posted the order of the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research warning the nursing personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication, else serious action will be taken.

    “This order is a violation of the basic values of our country. It is racist, discriminatory and utterly wrong,” she said in a tweet in Malayalam, saying Malayali nurses are risking their lives in Covid times to save people.

    “This order is also an insult. We owe them a debt of gratitude and respect. It should be withdrawn as soon as possible and an apology should be published,” she demanded.

    In another tweet, Priyanka alleged that the Modi government reduced oxygen beds by 36 per cent, ICU beds by 46 per cent, ventilator beds by 28 per cent between September 2020 and January 2021.

    “Is the health of Indian citizens less important than the Central Vista project?” she asked, alleging that the government has declared the project as an essential service with people working day and night to complete it by 2023.

    “When every expert in the country, the Parliamentary Committee on Health and their own sero-surveys warned them that additional beds would be needed for an inevitable second wave,” she said as part of her ‘ZimmedarKaun’ (Who is responsible) campaign.

  • Blue badge taken off after inactivity for 6 months, incomplete accounts: Twitter on blue tick removal

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI:  Amid outrage over personal accounts of Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat losing verified blue tick marks, Twitter on Saturday said the blue badge and verified status could be automatically removed from an account if it is incomplete or inactive for six months as per its rules.

    On Saturday morning, Twitter had removed and later restored the verified blue badge on the personal account of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.

    Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s personal account also saw the blue badge being removed and was subsequently restored.

    Many other accounts of prominent Sangh names like Suresh Joshi and Arun Kumar also saw similar actions being taken.

    On Saturday, Twitter said as per its verification policy, the microblogging platform may automatically remove the blue verified badge and verified status if the account becomes inactive or is incomplete.

    ALSO READ | Government issues ‘one last notice’ to Twitter to comply with IT rules

    “Inactivity is based on logging in. To keep the account active, the account holder must make sure to log in at least every 6 months,” Twitter said.

    Accounts holders that sport the blue badge must also ensure that their profiles are complete and include either a verified email address or phone number as well as a profile image and a display name, as per the rules.

    Twitter, however, did not disclose the number and details of the accounts that had been actioned under these rules.

    The coveted ”blue badge” helps users distinguish the authenticity of accounts that are of high public interest, and gives Twitter users more context about who they’re having conversations with, the micro-blogging platform had earlier stated.

  • Government issues ‘one last notice’ to Twitter to comply with IT rules

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI:  The government on Saturday issued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to “immediately” comply with the new IT rules and warned that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act.

    The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said that Twitter’s refusal to comply with the rules demonstrated the microblogging site’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 mechanism 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,” the IT ministry said.

    The ministry said that though with effect from May 26, 2021, “consequences follow” given Twitter’s non-compliance with rules “however, as a gesture of goodwill, Twitter Inc is hereby given one last notice to immediately comply with the rules, failing which the exemption from liability available shall stand withdrawn and Twitter shall be liable for consequences as per the IT Act and other penal laws of India”.

    The notice, however, did not mention a specific date to comply with the rules.

    ALSO READ | Twitter’s allegation of ‘intimidation tactics’ by police totally baseless, says government

    The IT ministry in its notice observed that the world’s largest democracy had been among the first countries in the world, outside the parent country of Twitter Inc, to enthusiastically adopt the microblogging platform.

    “Users who are abused on the platform or are harassed or are subject to defamation or sexual abuse or become victims or a whole range of other abusive content must get a redressal mechanism that the same people of India have created through a due process of law,” the IT ministry asserted.

    The people of India, who use Twitter, “deserve and demand” a fair mechanism to address their grievances and resolve their disputes, it said.

    “Leave alone proactively creating such a mechanism, Twitter Inc is in the inglorious bracket of refusing to do so even when mandated by law,” the ministry said in its notice to the company.

    Twitter declined to comment to an e-mail sent by PTI on the issue.

    MeitY further confronted Twitter saying it was dismayed to note that the platform’s responses to its letters neither address the clarifications sought, nor indicate full compliance with the rules.

    “It is clear from your responses that till date Twitter has not informed about the details of the Chief Compliance Officer as required under the Rules,” it said.

    Also, resident grievance officer and the nodal contact person nominated by the company is not an employee of Twitter Inc in India as prescribed in the rules, the ministry said and added that office address of Twitter Inc as mentioned by the company “is that of a law firm in India, which is not as per the rules”.

    The ministry has made it clear to Twitter that such non-compliance will lead to “unintended consequences” including Twitter losing exemption from liability as intermediary under the IT Act.

    Twitter has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, as per data cited by the government recently.

    The row over Twitter’s handling of certain messages had recently blown up into all-out war of words between the Centre and the social media platform.

    The government had earlier slammed Twitter’s remarks on alleged intimidation and threat to free speech and said that the microblogging platform had sought to undermine India’s legal system, through its actions and deliberate defiance.

    The IT ministry had termed the company’s stance as an attempt to dictate terms to the world’s largest democracy.

    Twitter had previously drawn flak after it marked several tweets by ruling BJP leaders on an alleged strategy document of Opposition to target the government over COVID as containing ‘manipulated media’, triggering a sharp rebuke from the government.

    The government had earlier asked Twitter to “stop beating around the bush” and comply with laws of the land.

    The microblogging site on Saturday removed and later restored the verified blue tick on the personal account of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu.

    Officials of the Vice President Secretariat said the personal Twitter handle of Naidu was inactive for a long time and the Twitter algorithm removed the blue badge.

    The new IT rules for social media companies that came into effect last month mandate large platforms like Facebook and Twitter to undertake greater due diligence and make these digital platforms more accountable and responsible for the content hosted by them.

    The rules also 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 the sovereignty of India, the security of the state, or public order.

    The new IT rules require significant social media intermediaries – those with other 50 lakh users – to appoint a grievance officer, nodal officer and a chief compliance officer.

    These personnel are required to be resident in India.

    Under the new 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, pornography etc.

    The Centre had said the new rules are designed to prevent abuse and misuse of platforms, and offer users a robust forum for grievance redressal.

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

    In other words, they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints.