Twitter is now complying with India’s new IT rules, New Delhi told a court Tuesday, in a move that is expected to ease months-long tension between the American social media network and the government of world’s second largest internet market.
A lawyer representing the Indian government told the Delhi High Court that Twitter’s recent moves to appoint chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer in the country have made the social network “prima facie” compliant with the new law.
India’s new IT rules, which were unveiled in February this year, mandated significant social media firms, among other things, to appoint officials to address on-ground concerns in the country.
Facebook and Google complied with this requirement in May, when the proposed rules went into effect in the South Asian market.
Twitter, which was facing heat from the Indian government for not blocking some tweets that the Indian government deemed objectionable, had requested additional few months to comply with the new rules and in the meantime vacated the required roles with temporary staff.
A Twitter spokesperson in India didn’t immediately return a text.
The new rules also require significant social media firms operating encrypted messaging services to devise a way to trace originator of messages that cause damage in the real world. Several firms including Facebook’s WhatsApp and Signal have not complied with this requirement. WhatsApp has sued the Indian government over this requirement.
This is a developing story. More to follow…
