MeitY Unhappy With Twitter’s Inadequate Responses To Notices

Microblogging site Twitter and the ministry of information and technology (MeitY) have been at loggerheads since early 2021, even before the new IT rules came into effect. Now, the microblogging site has again come under MeitY’s scrutiny for its lack of responses. 

While the ministry sent several notices to Twitter India, although the number of notices has not been specified, it did not receive adequate responses or even any response, ET reported. This occurred at least in five cases. 

The notices were sent under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act.  In one of those cases, Twitter took more than 72 hours to remove content related to communal violence after the notice was issued. 

However, the ministry official quoted in the report did not specify which notices did not receive any response from Twitter India.

Other than Twitter, ET reported, there is another social media intermediary that has also come under the ministry’s notice for violating new IT rules. The report, however, didn’t disclose its name. Further, the ministry will seek response from other social media platforms also eventually.

It must be noted that the IT ministry sent a notice to Twitter for not complying with the new IT rules properly. It may even lose its intermediary status if it continues to violate the IT rules, the government has warned Twitter.

“If Twitter Inc. continues to violate these Directions and therefore the IT Act, significant consequences under the IT Act shall prevail,” the notice read.

When the IT rules were first notified, the ministry issued a similar notice to Twitter for appointing a resident grievance officer, resident chief officer, and a nodal contact person.

IT rules 2021 (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) is currently under the process of amendment. The proposed rules plan to bring down the 15-days timeline to 72 hours for addressing and resolving complaints about content that is patently false, infringes copyright, and threatens the integrity of India, as per the draft amendment. 

The government has also proposed to form a Grievance Appellate Committee. If users find any decision of a social media company’s grievance officer dissatisfactory, they will be able to appeal to the government-formed committee.

Recently, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar indicated that the ministry is open to change in IT rules as the ecosystem evolves.