Government's 'last' notice to Twitter, warns of penal action

NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Electronics and IT has sent its final notice to Twitter over non-compliance of the new IT rules and has again warned of penal action in case the US-headquartered social media platform fails to comply to the norms.

The notice sent by the ministry noted that in view of Twitter Inc's non-compliance with the rules which came into effect on May 26, 2021, "consequences follow".

"However, as gesture of goodwill, Twitter Inc is hereby given one last notice to immediately comply with the rules, failing which the exemption from liability available under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000 shall stand withdrawn and Twitter shall be liable for consequences as per the IT Act and other penal laws of India," it said.

The ministry said that it is clear from the responses of the company that till date it has not informed about the details of the Chief Compliance Office as required under the Rules. Further, it also said that the Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person nominated by the platform are not its employees in India as required under the new rules.

"The office address of Twitter Inc as mentioned by you is that of a law firm in India, which is also not as per the rules."

It said that the refusal to comply demonstrates Twitter's lack of commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform.

Twitter on Saturday removed the blue verified tick badge from the personal handle of India's Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu for a few hours. The blue tick badge was however later restored after a few hours.

However, the official handle of the Vice President of India @VPSecretariat, which was run by the vice President's Secretariat, continues to have the blue badge.

"The personal Twitter handle of the Vice President was not being used for some time because his tweets were being posted from his official account. It came to our notice today (Saturday) morning that the blue tick has been removed from Vice President's personnel Twitter account.

"Subsequently, we talked to Twitter over the issue and they informed us that the algorithm had been removed automatically as the account was not active for long," a source in Vice President office told IANS. "We raised the issue with Twitter and they were in process of restoring it."

The Vice President posted his last tweet from his personal handle on July 23 last year about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and worshipper of Goddess Bhawani.

According to Twitter, the blue verified badge on Twitter lets people know that an account of public interest is authentic. To be verified, an account must be notable, authentic, and active. The Vice President's account, it said, has been inactive since July 2020.

"As explained in the Twitter verification policy, Twitter may remove the blue verified badge and verified status if the account becomes inactive. The verified badge has now been restored," Twitter said in a statement.

Explaining about how Twitter determines account inactivity, the social networking site said inactivity is based on logging in. "To keep the account active, the account holder must make sure to log in at least every six months." (IANS)

Also Read: Twitter Removes RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat's 'Blue Tick' from his Handle

Also Watch: