‘Concerned by potential threat to freedom of expression in India’: Twitter seeks 3-month extension on rules

With WhatsApp suing the Indian government over the new IT rules for social media platforms Twitter on Thursday requested the IT Ministry to consider a minimum of threemonth extension in order for the company to implement the new intermediary guidelinesTwitter which witnessed a police raid on its offices in Delhi and Gurugram early this week related to the alleged Congress toolkit controversy said that it reaffirms that Twitter continues to accept grievances from users and law enforcement via its existing grievance redressal channel available under the new IT RulesStressing that it will strive to comply with applicable law in India a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement that right now we are concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serveWe alongside many in civil society in India and around the world have concerns with regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global Terms of Service as well as with core elements of the new IT Rules Twitter said in its first reaction after the police raids on its officesOn Monday Delhi Police visited Twitter Indias local offices in the National Capital Region after Twitter had marked one of the tweets of BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra as manipulated mediaTwitters presumptive judgement has triggered widespread outrage among Indian users across the countryThe company spokesperson said that it plans to advocate for changes to elements of these regulations that inhibit free open public conversationWe will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian government and believe it is critical to adopt a collaborative approach It is the collective responsibility of elected officials industry and civil society to safeguard the interests of the public the spokesperson saidThe new rules notified in the gazette of India on February 25 under the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021 came into effect from May 26WhatsApp has moved the Delhi High Court against the new IT rules for intermediaries saying these would violate privacyElectronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said the government is committed to the right to privacy but simultaneously it also has to maintain law and order and ensure national securityAlso Read Respond ASAP on compliance status to new norms Govt to social media platformsThe Union Ministry of Electronics and IT has written to the social media platforms directing them to respond on their compliance to the new digital rules as soon as possibleFacebook has said that the company aims to comply with the provisions of the new intermediary guidelines and is working towards itTwitter said in its fresh statement that it is particularly concerned about the requirement to make an individual the compliance officer criminally liable for content on the platform the requirements for proactive monitoring and the blanket authority to seek information about our customersThis represents dangerous overreach that is inconsistent with open democratic principles the company arguedWe urge the Ministry of Electronics and IT to publish these Standard Operating Protocols on procedural aspects of compliance for public consultation We would request the Ministry to consider a minimum of 3 months extension in order for Twitter to implement the RulesTwitter was recently served with a noncompliance notice and have withheld a portion of the content identified in the blocking order under its Country Withheld Content policyThe content identified was originally reported to us in the blocking orders issued since February 2021 We maintain that the content reported in the original order constitutes protected legitimate free speech under Indian and international law and we have formally communicated this to the government the company informedTwitter said that it has not taken any action on verified accounts that consist of news media entities journalists activists and politiciansThe escalated content constitutes legitimate free speech Yet due to the laws limited scope under Section 69A which gives limited room to an intermediary to defend the content we have been compelled to withhold in response to a noncompliance notice Not doing so poses penal consequences with many risks for Twitter employees the company notedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever