‘Twitter Files’ Shows Abuse Of Power By The Social Media Platform: Rajeev Chandrasekhar

‘The Twitter Files’ saga shows the power of internet platforms and the ‘misuse’ and ‘abuse’ of that power by the microblogging platform, according to Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Retweeting a Twitter thread by journalist Matt Taibbi on Twitter Files, Chandrasekhar said, “It is very obvious that safe harbours for Internet Intermediaries must be conditional on them following set of rules as #India has done.”

The comment comes at a time when the government is tightening the regulatory noose around social media platforms and there has been controversy about dilution of the safe harbour provision in the country’s Information Technology Rules.

Under Section 79 of the IT Act, social media platforms enjoy the ‘intermediary’ status if they comply with the government notice for the takedown of certain content pieces.

Replying to a question from a Twitter user about how India will ensure that non-Indian big tech companies comply with Indian laws, Chandrasekhar said that the new Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, which is in the works, will be the framework for an open, safe, trusted and accountable internet that all Indians deserve.

For the uninitiated, Twitter Files, released by Taibbi based on documents sourced from Twitter with the help from its new owner Elon Musk, revealed the decisions taken by the microblogging platform around the US Presidential elections. It showed that Twitter received and acted on requests from both – then US President Donald Trump camp as well as Democratic presidential candidate and current president Joe Biden camp. Besides, it also showed how Twitter suppressed and blocked the “Hunter Biden laptop story”.

Meanwhile, Musk on Thursday (December 9) retweeted another Twitter thread by journalist Bari Weiss, titled ‘The Twitter Files Part Two’, as per which the platform actively blacklisted and limited the reach of certain accounts and tweets.

It must be noted that Twitter has been at loggerheads with the Indian government on multiple issues, and has also dragged it to court against some of the content takedown orders.

Meanwhile, the Centre has been working to tighten the digital laws of the country. Recently, it released the much-awaited draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022. In case of non-compliance with the provisions of the Bill, a penalty of up to INR 500 Cr can be imposed.

“If the Board determines on conclusion of an inquiry that noncompliance by a person is significant, it may, after giving the person a reasonable opportunity of being heard, impose such financial penalty as specified in Schedule 1, not exceeding rupees five hundred crore in each Instance,” as per the Bill.

Earlier this year, the government notified the amendments to IT Rules 2021 which came into effect on October 28. The amended rules will lead to the formation of a grievance panel that will hear complaints from users about content moderation decisions of social media platforms.