Twitter became the first US-based social media network to lose legal protection in India following a sequence of incidents that reinforced the government’s displeasure with the social media platform. Twitter, on the other hand, has maintained its cooperative posture and stated that it is working hard to comply with the new guidelines.
Reacting to the developments, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology, said it is “astounding that Twitter which portrays itself as the flag bearer of free speech, chooses the path of deliberate defiance when it comes to the Intermediary Guidelines”.
“Further, what is perplexing is that Twitter fails to address the grievances of users by refusing to set up process as mandated by the law of the land. Additionally, it chooses a policy of flagging manipulates media, only when it suits, its likes and dislikes,” he added.
Twitter will now be held liable for tweets and data stored on its servers. It will not be seen as a platform that hosts content that has been tweeted, but it will be editorially responsible for the content.
