Lawyer files complaint against Twitter before Delhi HC, says firm broke IT rules

A lawyer has filed a petition before the Delhi High Court alleging Twitter was in violation of India’s Information Technology (IT) rules and had “very defamatory” posts on the platform.

Amit Achrya asked the court to direct the government to make Twitter discharge is obligations under the IT Rules 2021. His petition said he wanted complain about derogatory comments on Twitter, but failed to find the details of the complaint officer as mandated by the Rules.

“The Petitioner who is also a subscriber and user of Twitter ( owned by Respondent No. 3) when scrolling his Twitter on 26.05.2021, found some of the tweets of two individual very defamatory, false and untrue but when he tried to look for Resident Grievance Officer so that he can register his complaint against the alleged defamatory and untrue tweets, he found no details of the Resident Grievance Officer on the page of Twitter, which is a clear violation of sub rule 2(a) of Rule 3 which says that The intermediary shall prominently publish on its website, mobile based application or both, as the case may be..,”

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, published on February 25, asks a ‘significant social media intermediary’ to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person for 24×7 coordination with law enforcement agencies, and a resident grievance officer.

It also has to be able to identify the first originator of problematic content that may harm the country’s interests and several other provisions described in the Rules. WhatsApp approached the Delhi High Court on May 25, the deadline for compliance, and said this provision would mean breaking end-to-end encryption on the platform.

Twitter India said Thursday that while it would strive to comply with the law in India, it was concerned about “the use of intimidation tactics by the police”.

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad responded to Twitter’s statement by saying the government welcomes criticism including the right to ask questions. His ministry said, “Twitter’s statement is an attempt to dictate its terms to the world’s largest democracy.”