Centre serves final notice to Twitter for compliance with new IT rules

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 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last notice to immediately comply with the rules, failing which the exemption from liability available...Shall stand withdrawn and Twitter shall be liable for consequences as per the IT Act and other penal laws of India."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 give a specific deadline to comply with the rules.

The Ministry in its letter to Twitter stated that the refusal to comply demonstrates the social media platform'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.

It further said, "This is with reference to this Ministry's letters dated May 26 2021 and May 28 2021 regarding compliance with the subject rules and your corresponding responses dated May 28 2021 and June 2 2021. MeitY is dismayed to note that your responses to the Ministry's letters neither address the clarifications sought by this Ministry nor indicate full compliance with the Rules."

It also said that the office address of Twitter Inc. as mentioned by it is that of a law firm in India, which is also not as per the rules.

This comes amid withdrawal of the verified blue badge by Twitter from the verified accounts of Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and several Sangh functionaries.

Twitter had removed the blue badge from the personal Twitter handle of Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu, @MVenkaiahNaidu. Although, the official handle of the Vice President of India @VPSecretariat continues to have the blue badge.

Later today, issuing clarification that since the account was inactive since July 2020, as per Twitter verification policy, the social media platform may remove the blue verified badge and verified status if the account becomes inactive or is incomplete, the badge was restored.

(With agency inputs)