Twitter has one last chance to bring its work in India in line with the country's new social media regulations, or the company faces “unintended consequences,” Indian officials said. About this with reference to a letter sent to the corporation, reports Reuters.
The new rules were announced in February and came into effect on May 26. They imply tighter regulation of content on social networks, as well as increasing the obligation of companies to respond to official requests from the authorities. In addition, social networks are instructed to create mechanisms for dealing with complaints and appoint persons responsible for coordinating interaction with law enforcement agencies.
The authorities said that social networks should take greater responsibility for the content that is distributed on their platforms, and also remove it within 36 hours of receiving the appropriate order.
India's Ministry of Technology sent Twitter a notice of the new rules on May 26 and 28, but in its responses the company “did not provide the requested clarification” and did not demonstrate a willingness to work under the new rules, the agency said.
Saturday's letter says Twitter hasn't complied with the new rules that apply to hiring additional people. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, which sent a letter warning the corporation of “unforeseen consequences” due to this, including the possibility of holding Twitter accountable for the posted content.
“However, as a gesture of goodwill, Twitter Inc is receiving a final notification [of the need to] follow the rules immediately,” the letter said.
India has tried to put pressure on social media in the past over published content. In April, the government demanded that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter remove dozens of social media posts criticizing the government's response to the pandemic. The posts that displeased the authorities included those in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was called to resign.
In May, authorities deemed it necessary to remove reports of an Indian strain of Corona virus from platforms. “We learned that a false statement is being spread on the Internet, which implies that the Indian variant of the coronavirus is spreading across countries. This is a pure lie. The World Health Organization did not associate the term “Indian variant” with the B.1.617 strain of coronavirus in any of its reports, “the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said in a letter.
