Indian government to Twitter: Stop offshoring and outsourcing – or risk losing legal protections
(2021/06/07)
- Reference: 1623048309
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/07/india_vs_twitter/
- Source link:
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has written to Twitter with a final warning after the micro-blogging service offshored and outsourced some of its obligations under the nation’s content takedown laws.
The world’s most-populous nation and the micro-blogging service have been beefing over India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, a law that requires social networks to take down child exploitation material and other internet nasties, and to appoint a chief compliance officer, a “nodal contact person,” and a “resident grievance officer” to liaise with local authorities and handle takedown requests.
Twitter last week [1]revealed it has appointed a grievance officer and provided a contact in the USA and another at an Indian law firm.
[2]
MEITY took a dim view of those appointments, wrote to Twitter to say so and received a reply that, the Ministry says, “neither addresses the clarifications sought by this Ministry nor indicates full compliance with the Rules.”
[3]
[4]
“Twitter has not informed about the details of the Chief Compliance Officer as required under the Rules,” states the Ministry’s letter. “Further, Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person nominated by you is not an employee of Twitter Inc. in India as prescribed in the 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.”
Yes, dear reader, that’s an Indian ministry saying offshoring and outsourcing just aren’t good enough.
[5]Twitter given three weeks to comply with Indian content code
[6]WhatsApp sues India over new law requiring ‘traceability’ of messages
[7]Indian government says 5G doesn’t cause COVID-19. Also points out India has no 5G networks
[8]India's demand to identify people on chat apps will 'break end-to-end encryption', say digital rights warriors
The letter, signed by MEITY cyber-law group coordinator Rakesh Maheshwan, occasionally gets rather heated.
“Despite being operational in India for more than a decade, it is beyond belief that Twitter Inc. has doggedly refused to create mechanisms that will enable the people of India to resolve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes,” Maheshwan thundered.
[9]
“Leave alone proactively creating such a mechanism, Twitter Inc. is in the inglorious bracket of refusing to do so even when mandated by law.”
The letter points out that Twitter has not responded to a letter sent a week earlier, and warns that non-compliance will “lead to unintended consequences including Twitter losing exemption from liability as available under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000.”
That [10]section says that social media companies lose exemption to liability for “any third-party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by him” if they don’t comply with local laws.
[11]
As Twitter carries quite a bit of, shall we say, intemperate content, non-compliance with the new Code could prove very challenging indeed.
Twitter’s blog and Social Policy account are silent on the matter, but the latter did find time to protest the service being banned in Nigeria on the same day that MEITY’s letter was dated and made public.
Twitter has until June 16th to prove compliance with the Code.
One entity watching on with interest will be Indian Twitter clone “Koo”, which has positioned itself as the patriotic micro-blogging alternative.
Koo has gathered around six million users since launching in March 2020. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/01/twitter_vs_india/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YL3uaAG4uIbsOpTTclqfQgAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/01/twitter_vs_india/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/27/whatsapp_sues_india/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/11/india_5g_covid_19/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/26/india_information_technology_intermediary_guidelines_and_digital_media_ethics_code_rules_2021/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YL3uaAG4uIbsOpTTclqfQgAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.indiacode.nic.in/show-data?actid=AC_CEN_45_76_00001_200021_1517807324077§ionId=13114§ionno=79&orderno=105
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YL3uaAG4uIbsOpTTclqfQgAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The world’s most-populous nation and the micro-blogging service have been beefing over India’s Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, a law that requires social networks to take down child exploitation material and other internet nasties, and to appoint a chief compliance officer, a “nodal contact person,” and a “resident grievance officer” to liaise with local authorities and handle takedown requests.
Twitter last week [1]revealed it has appointed a grievance officer and provided a contact in the USA and another at an Indian law firm.
[2]
MEITY took a dim view of those appointments, wrote to Twitter to say so and received a reply that, the Ministry says, “neither addresses the clarifications sought by this Ministry nor indicates full compliance with the Rules.”
[3]
[4]
“Twitter has not informed about the details of the Chief Compliance Officer as required under the Rules,” states the Ministry’s letter. “Further, Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person nominated by you is not an employee of Twitter Inc. in India as prescribed in the 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.”
Yes, dear reader, that’s an Indian ministry saying offshoring and outsourcing just aren’t good enough.
[5]Twitter given three weeks to comply with Indian content code
[6]WhatsApp sues India over new law requiring ‘traceability’ of messages
[7]Indian government says 5G doesn’t cause COVID-19. Also points out India has no 5G networks
[8]India's demand to identify people on chat apps will 'break end-to-end encryption', say digital rights warriors
The letter, signed by MEITY cyber-law group coordinator Rakesh Maheshwan, occasionally gets rather heated.
“Despite being operational in India for more than a decade, it is beyond belief that Twitter Inc. has doggedly refused to create mechanisms that will enable the people of India to resolve their issues on the platform in a timely and transparent manner and through fair processes,” Maheshwan thundered.
[9]
“Leave alone proactively creating such a mechanism, Twitter Inc. is in the inglorious bracket of refusing to do so even when mandated by law.”
The letter points out that Twitter has not responded to a letter sent a week earlier, and warns that non-compliance will “lead to unintended consequences including Twitter losing exemption from liability as available under section 79 of the IT Act, 2000.”
That [10]section says that social media companies lose exemption to liability for “any third-party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by him” if they don’t comply with local laws.
[11]
As Twitter carries quite a bit of, shall we say, intemperate content, non-compliance with the new Code could prove very challenging indeed.
Twitter’s blog and Social Policy account are silent on the matter, but the latter did find time to protest the service being banned in Nigeria on the same day that MEITY’s letter was dated and made public.
Twitter has until June 16th to prove compliance with the Code.
One entity watching on with interest will be Indian Twitter clone “Koo”, which has positioned itself as the patriotic micro-blogging alternative.
Koo has gathered around six million users since launching in March 2020. ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/01/twitter_vs_india/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YL3uaAG4uIbsOpTTclqfQgAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YL3uaAG4uIbsOpTTclqfQgAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YL3uaAG4uIbsOpTTclqfQgAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/01/twitter_vs_india/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/27/whatsapp_sues_india/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/11/india_5g_covid_19/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/26/india_information_technology_intermediary_guidelines_and_digital_media_ethics_code_rules_2021/
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YL3uaAG4uIbsOpTTclqfQgAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.indiacode.nic.in/show-data?actid=AC_CEN_45_76_00001_200021_1517807324077§ionId=13114§ionno=79&orderno=105
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YL3uaAG4uIbsOpTTclqfQgAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: pot and kettle
John70
My thoughts exactly...
Re: pot and kettle
Potemkine!
plus c'est gros, plus ça passe
With a few exceptions ^^
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY)
Anonymous Coward
They need to put more effort into all the phone and internet based scams coming out of their country. The ones where they try and get you to install LogMeIn or some other remote software.
Potemkine!
Stop offshoring and outsourcing
I agree with the Indian government, stop offshoring and outsourcing if you want a good reactivity and a good quality of service.
Pack up and go home.
Anonymous Coward
Twitter should just pack up their shit and close up shop before returning to America. If India thinks their homebrew clone can do just as well then let them try. Meanwhile Twitter gives a cheery wave before firing their entire Indian workforce and going home. I wonder how well India's government would cope with having a few thousand "high tech" jobs suddenly flushing away? How well would they cope with a "high tech" employer refusing to hire any Indians? What kind of message does it send to the Indian populace if the general sentiment of "If your government wants to play hardball then we can just refuse to play with you anymore" starts rippling out to other corporations around the planet? I know it's unlikely and it's only a single company but imagine the political shitstorm if such an attitude suddenly made India no longer a desireable place to employ by anyone not already up to their necks in India...
pot and kettle
"Yes, dear reader, that’s an Indian ministry saying offshoring and outsourcing just aren’t good enough."
Pot and kettle, really.
But, as the french put it, "plus c'est gros, plus ça passe" which is more or less the bigger the easier it goes.