Twitter gets Govt warning to comply with orders by July 4 or risk losing intermediary status
Op IndiaOn June 27, the Ministry of Electronics and IT warned social media giant Twitter to comply with its blocking orders by July 4, or risk losing its immunity as an intermediary. It stated that the designated officer of the ministry issued several directions to block certain pieces of content and accounts under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act that empowers the GoI to issue blocking notices to the social media companies. The official said, “The notices sent to Twitter pertain to several cases, both where the government had asked it to take down certain content and where the company had wrongfully taken down some content.” Amendments in regulations expected soon Notably, fresh amendments to the regulations issued by the government to govern intermediaries like Facebook, Twitter and others have been proposed by the ministry. In May 2021, after the new set of regulations to monitor and regulate the content of social media came to power, Twitter was supposed to appoint an external person as an India-based grievance officer.