Twitter has lost legal protection in India over its failure to appoint statutory officers in line with the new IT rules, government sources have said.

Twitter loses legal protection due to non-compliance with new IT rules

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2021-06-16 05:30:03

Twitter has lost legal protection in India over its failure to appoint statutory officers in line with the new IT rules, government sources have said.

Sources said on Wednesday that the microblogging platform lost legal indemnity in India after it failed to comply with new social media rules which required it to appoint key officers in India.

Twitter did not comply with rules despite letters from the ministry, sources said, and added that no order will be issued to remove the intermediary status of the social media platform.

Twitter, however, on Tuesday said it had complied with the Indian government’s new IT rules and appointed an interim Chief Compliance Officer.

"We are keeping the MeitY apprised of the progress at every step of the process. An interim Chief Compliance Officer has been retained and details will be shared with the Ministry directly soon. Twitter continues to make every effort to comply with the new Guidelines," a Twitter spokesperson told India Today.

An 'intermediary' status gives social media platforms immunity from liabilities over any third-party data hosted by them. The implications of losing legal cover or status as a social media intermediary are serious. Twitter would remain exposed to the provisions of law and not enjoy legal immunity as an intermediary and be liable like a publisher for objectionable content.