India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) sent a notice to Twitter giving them “one last opportunity” to comply with content takedown notices by July 4 or risk losing immunity as an intermediary, which would open them up to lawsuits.
Last year, India passed the IT Act, which requires, among other things, for social media platforms, aka intermediaries, to comply with takedown notices from the government and employ a chief compliance officer, a grievance officer, and a nodal contact person in the country.
In the notice, obtained by the Economic Times, addressed to the chief compliance officer, MeitY said: “Despite repeated notices and chances being given to them to act, Twitter continues to remain in violation. Therefore, appropriate action is being taken against (it).”
According to the ministry, Twitter has not complied with content takedown notices sent on June 6 and June 9. It added that it was considering removing Twitter’s immunity as an intermediary because of “repeated failures to act on content takedown notices sent under Section 69A of the IT Act.”
The ministry said that if the platform does not comply by July 4, the consequences of the IT Act will be enforced. The IT Act protects Twitter from liability for user-generated content. If the protection is removed, the microblogging platform will have editorial responsibility for all content posted.
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