Twitter Seeks More Time From Govt To Comply With India’s IT Rules, Says Covid Situation Causing Delay: Report  

In the latest development, the social media platform Twitter is reported to have approached the government seeking more time to comply with the new IT rules.

As per the report, the microblogging platform has cited the pandemic situation in the country and sought additional time to comply with the new rules.

“Twitter has written to Meity seeking more time to comply with the IT rules. It has expressed its intent to comply with the rules but has been unable to do so because of the pandemic,” a source told PTI.

The response from Twitter came after the government last week issued a final notice to the company to comply with the new Information Technology rules that came into effect on 26 May, or be ready for the consequences.

In a letter to Twitter, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) ) had stated that the microblogging site’s refusal to comply with the rules signalled the micro-blogging site’s “lack of commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform”.

“Despite being operational in India for more than a decade, it is beyond belief that Twitter Inc has doggedly refused to create mechanism that will enable the people of India to resolve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes, by India based, clearly identified resources,” the ministry had said.

“We have assured the Government of India that Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new guidelines, and an overview on our progress has been duly shared. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian Government,” a Twitter spokesperson was quoted as saying by the report.

The MeitY had announced its draft new IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules for social media platforms on 25 February.

As per the new rules, social media platforms will have to remove offending content within 36 hours after a government directive or a legal order.

The new rules mandate that the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries, must establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving/resolving complaints from the users or victims.