If you invoke US copyright act, then be cognisant of Indian legal guidelines as effectively: Prasad on Twitter row

Calling for accountability of huge social media corporations, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday stated Twitter invoked a US copyright act to dam his account but it surely must also be cognisant of the legislation in India the place it’s working and incomes cash.
Speaking on the India Global Forum, the minister stated Twitter final week blocked his account for an hour on a grievance made 4 years in the past below the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the US.
“If you’re going to invoke the… digital copyright act of America then you must even be cognisant of the copyright guidelines of India. That is the purpose.

“You cannot say my whole stand will be regulated by an ex-parte assessment of the US law. For a happy blending of the role of big tech and democracy, a solution has to be found,” Prasad stated.
He stated social media corporations are free to do enterprise in India however they must be accountable to the Indian Constitution and legal guidelines.
Micro-blogging platform Twitter has been at loggerheads with the federal government over varied points, together with through the farmers’ protest in January and later when it tagged political posts of a number of leaders of the ruling occasion BJP as “manipulated media”, drawing a pointy rebuke from the Centre.
Twitter has nonetheless not complied with the brand new IT guidelines for social media corporations. The guidelines mandate social media corporations to determine a grievance redressal mechanism for resolving complaints from the customers or victims.
All important social media corporations, with over 50 lakh person base, must appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact individual and a grievance officer. All of them must be resident in India.
Prasad additional stated the problem of social media in India is round abuse of the rights of victims on these platforms and the businesses’ accountability.

“If democracy has to survive misinformation, fake news, colluded material…all these are challenges. I am not in favour of censoring but democracies have to find a common ground as far as these issues are concerned so that these big tech companies do their business, earn good money, good profit but become accountable. This can only happen if you follow law of the land,” Prasad stated.