Big action has been taken by India on Twitter for non-compliance of new IT rules. Now the exemption from legal action received from Twitter under Section 79 of the Indian IT Act has been abolished. With the end of the legal protection, Uttar Pradesh has become the first state to file a case against Twitter for fake news. According to an official, the legal exemption given to Twitter from May 26 is over. The government had already warned Twitter that if it did not comply with the new IT rules, the exemption given to it from liability under the IT Act would be withdrawn. Along with this, he has to be ready for action under the IT Act and other penal provisions.
Earlier on Tuesday, Twitter said that it has appointed an interim chief compliance officer for India. Soon the details of the officer will be shared directly with the Ministry of Information Technology. The new IT rules have come into effect from May 25, 2021, but Twitter is the only tech platform that has not complied with these rules despite several notices sent by the government.
Explain that the new rules were to be followed by May 25, but despite receiving repeated notices, Twitter did not appoint statutory officers, which was mandatory under the new rules. Section 79 of the IT Act till now exempted Twitter from any legal action. However, now after this protection is over, if a user posts illegal or inflammatory posts, then the police can also inquire from Twitter in this matter.
Why did the Ghaziabad police register a case?
The Ghaziabad Police of Uttar Pradesh had registered an FIR against nine people, including one on Twitter India, after a video of an elderly man being assaulted and molested went viral. This action has been taken on all of them due to wrongly giving communal color to the incident. In a video going viral on social media, it is seen that an elderly Muslim was beaten up and his beard was cut. According to the Ghaziabad Police, Twitter did nothing to stop the video from going viral.
According to the police, the truth of the matter is different. The victim’s elder had given some amulets to the accused, due to which the angry accused carried out the incident. But Twitter did not tag this video as “manipulated media”. The police also said that the victim has not registered in his FIR about raising slogans of Jai Shri Ram and cutting his beard.
