Twitter Loses Legal Protection In India, Slapped With FIR For "Provoking Communal Sentiments"

FIR against Twitter: Twitter has been stripped off its legal shield in India for third party content in India. The decision came after the company's alleged failure to appoint statutory officers in compliance with the new IT rules of the country. Twitter is now the only US platform to lose the protective shield granted under Section 79 of the Information and Technology Act. Soon after the protection was removed, a case was registered against Twitter in Uttar Pradesh for "provoking communal sentiments."

On the night of June 15, a case was filed against Twitter in Ghaziabad, UP, holding the platform responsible for third party content. The case was filed in reference to a June 5 alleged assault of an elderly Muslim man. The video of the incident went viral on Twitter and now it stands accused of not removing the "misleading" content related to the case, as per the FIR filed.

Twitter, alongside several journalists have been charged with "inciting" communal sentiments via posts that shared the man's allegations, reports NDTV. As per police a press release was also shared on the platform by them providing details of the case and rejecting the communal angle in the incident. However, despite the clarification, Twitter did not take any actions to remove the tweets in question.

However, a Twitter spokesperson told TOI that the company had appointed an interim compliance officer, details of which shall soon be shared with the IT Ministry of India. "We are keeping the IT Ministry apprised of the progress at every step of the process. An interim chief compliance officer has been retained and details will be shared with the ministry directly soon," said Twitter's spokesperson.

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