Twitter Finally Bows To India's New IT Laws

Twitter has bowed to India’s new rules which govern IT companies, government lawyers have reportedly told a New Delhi Court.

The new rules are mainly designed to get social media platforms to delete content that officials consider unlawful within 36 hours of being reported and to aid in any subsequent police investigations.

Hopefully, this is expected to bring to an end a months-long battle between the Indian government and the messaging platform. This has made the company hire a domestic compliance officer and an executive who can handle grievances from the authorities.

Similar to Nigeria, India and Twitter’s relationship has been strained for much of this year, after Twitter refused to block critics of the Modi government. The Indian government has threatened to jail Twitter employees unless they removed the so-called inflammatory content around the so-called Farmer’s Protests. Shortly after, India successfully got the company to suppress tweets that criticized the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Centre to Delhi #HighCourt: #Twitter seems in compliance with Indian #IT Rules now

Delhi HC defers hearing for Oct 5 on plea seeking @Twitter's compliance with IT Rules@abhhimanyus #GovtVsTwitter pic.twitter.com/z4OZvu2C4E

— ET NOW (@ETNOWlive) August 10, 2021

A spokesperson for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in May tweeted an image purporting to be a leaked document from (rival party) the Indian National Congress and the tweet made things worst as reported by The New York Times.

This image, which depicted a plan for opposition leaders to destabilize the government, was widely retweeted by major political figures. Of course, the image was fake, and Twitter added a label to the original tweet saying that contained “manipulated media.”

And in June, India threatened Twitter with the loss of its legal immunity (similar to Section 230 in the US) from being responsible for the content its users post. In July, those protections were finally withdrawn and Indian officials were quick to file lawsuits.