Govt Likely To Question Facebook & Twitter Over Lower Compliance To Legal Notices

After Twitter decided to take the government to court over internet censorship, the Centre is looking to question social media companies Twitter and Meta’s Facebook. The government may reportedly seek an explanation over the lower rate of compliance by these platforms when the government serves them legal notices as compared to other major countries.

According to an ET report, the IT ministry is looking to compile comparative reports of such action taken by significant social media intermediaries (SSMIs) both voluntarily and in response to official notices in India as well as overseas for a detailed review. 

The report quoted ministry officials who said that India has a large number of social media users and it is natural that the number of objectionable and actionable content in the country will also be higher. Yet, the social media intermediaries lack compliance as compared to other countries, it noted.

The IT ministry is likely to discuss the issue at the next meeting between the ministry and the social media platforms.

The IT Rules & The Debate Around Internet Censorship

Since the introduction of IT Rules in 2021, the government and social media intermediaries have been at loggerheads. While many foreign social media companies have complied with the rules, a lot of them have been selective in complying, which has been contended by the government.

Ultimately, several independent forums and panels have opposed the government’s eye on every social media post that can potentially spark debates.

In fact, Twitter is now suing the Indian government, calling the crackdown on the social media platform ‘overbroad and arbitrary, with the government demonstrating an excessive use of powers’. Experts have touted Twitter’s move to the Karnataka HC as an important precedent on internet censorship.

But it is to be noted that Twitter and Facebook are not 100% compliant with takedown notices from other countries either. In its global transparency report, Twitter’s overall compliance rate for legal requests in the first six months of 2021 in India, the US and the UK stood at 11%, 13% and 7% respectively. 

Facebook has been largely acquiescent with the governments across the world, with a compliance rate of 88% in the US and 89% in the UK as opposed to 64% in India in the second half of 2021.

As far as their proactive actions are concerned, Twitter banned over 46,000 accounts for violating its guidelines between April 26 and May 25, 2022, while Meta actioned 21.6 Mn content pieces across Facebook and Instagram in May 2022.