Twitter failed to comply with new IT rules, Centre tells Delhi High Court

The Centre said any non-compliance amounts to breach of provisions of IT Rules

The Centre on Monday told the Delhi High Court that Twitter has failed to comply with the new IT Rules and has thus lost its legal immunity from criminal prosecution for the content posted on the micro-blogging site.

In its affidavit, the Union government said that Twitter being a Significant Social Media Intermediary (SSMI) was mandated to comply with Indian Information Technology (IT) Rules 2021, which were notified on February 25.

It maintained that IT Rules are the law of the land and Twitter has to remove any unlawful information posted on the platform within 36 hours of an order by a court of law or a competent government authority.

"The IT Rules, 2021 are the law of the land and Twitter is mandatorily required to comply with the same. Any non-compliance amounts to breach of the provisions of the IT Rules, 2021 thereby leading to it losing its immunity conferred under section 79(1) of the IT Act, 2000," the document said.

The micro-blogging site, for its part, failed to comply with the digital rules by May 26 despite being given three months to do so, it pointed out.

The government further pointed out that non-compliance with IT Rules amounted to the loss of immunity under Section 79(1), which granted conditional immunity to SSMI as long as they fulfilled conditions laid down under IT Rules.

As of July 1, the government said Chief Compliance Officer has not been appointed by Twitter, the positions of the Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person, (even on an interim basis), were vacant.

Further, the physical contact address, which was shown to be there on May 29, 2021 was once not again available on Twitter’s website.

On Saturday, Twitter Inc said the platform was in its final stages of appointing a Resident Grievance Officer. It also said that the three-month period to comply with the new IT rules was not mandatory but only directory.

The HC is expected to hear on July 6 a petition by advocate Amit Acharya, contending that the social media giant didn't act on his complaints against allegedly defamatory tweets and also failed to comply with IT rules.