India's technology minister said on Tuesday that Twitter Inc had deliberately defied and failed to comply with the country's new IT rules, which became effective in late May.
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The new rules or the so-called Intermediary Guidelines, announced in February, are aimed at regulating content on social media firms such as Facebook, its WhatsApp messenger and Twitter, making them more accountable to legal requests for swift removal of posts and sharing details on the originators of messages.
The rules also require big social media companies to set up grievance redressal mechanisms and appoint new executives to coordinate with law enforcement.
Ravi Shankar Prasad did not directly say on Tuesday whether Twitter had lost intermediary protections, but a senior government official told Reuters that Twitter may no longer be eligible to seek liability exemptions as an intermediary or the host of user content in India due to its failure to comply with new IT rules.
"There are numerous queries arising as to whether Twitter is entitled to safe harbour provision," Prasad tweeted. "However, the simple fact of the matter is that Twitter has failed to comply with the Intermediary Guidelines that came into effect from the 26th of May."
Twitter did not respond to a request for comment though it said on Monday it was keeping India's technology ministry apprised of the steps it was taking.
