For weeks now, Twitter has been at serious loggerheads with the Indian government concerning its new IT policies. There have been map mix-ups, police summons, and a debate within the Delhi High Court. Now, finally, it appears as though tensions have eased, as the social media giant is now complying fully with India’s IT rules.
Twitter v India: Conclusion
The news comes by way of ET NOW, an Indian news publication. The rules demand that Twitter (and any other significant social media platform) employs several local officers in charge of platform issues. These include a grievance officer, a nodal officer, and a compliance officer. Vinay Prakash was placed in the compliance officer position last month, and has evidently filled the remaining roles now, and should be set to work monitoring content, taking it down, and holding individual accounts responsible for it.
This comes after multiple bouts between the Indian government and the microblogging platform, beginning with Twitter India’s managing director, Manish Maheshwari, being called to appear before the Ghaziabad police for the platform’s failure to take down tweets containing a video depicting the assault of a Muslim man.
From there the Indian government increased pressure on Twitter to comply with its new rules, resulting in the Delhi High Court deliberating over whether or not the platform would lose the intermediary status that protects it from being held responsible for any posts that violate India’s content moderation policies.
It seems as though things between Twitter and the Indian government have cooled off for the time being. Here’s hoping it lasts.