Twitter loses intermediary status in India, over non-compliance of new IT rules. The government sources on Wednesday said that micro-blogging platform Twitter has lost its intermediary status in India over non-compliance of the new IT rules formulated by the Government of Indian recently.
As a result of the development, the company has lost its legal shield in the country from prosecution over it’s user posts. The sources further added that Twitter will be liable for the content when it comes to it being violative of any Indian law. “Twitter has lost intermediary status in India the moment they didn’t comply with new IT rules.”
As per reports, Twitter will now be considered as the editorial publisher of the content that is shared on its platform instead of being considered as an intermediary platform. This essentially means that if any unlawful content is discovered on Twitter, the Indian government will hold the company responsible instead of the user who shared the content.
Earlier on June 9, Twitter had written to the government that it is making every effort to comply with new guidelines concerning social media companies and has appointed a nodal contractual person (NCP) and Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) on a contractual basis and was in advanced stages of “finalizing the appointment to the role of chief compliance officer,” sources said.
Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had on June 5 said that it had given Twitter one last notice to comply with the new rules concerning social media companies.
The ministry said in the letter that the New Intermediary Guideline Rules have become effective from May 26.
“The provisions for significant social media intermediaries under the Rules have already come into force on May 26 2021 and it has been more than a week but Twitter has refused to comply with the provisions of these Rules.
Announcement was made by Indian Electronics & Information Technology minister Ravishankar prasad on twitter.