Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar slams ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey for mendacity

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to slam the previous CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey for his tirade in opposition to India the place he claimed that the Indian govt pressurised him to withhold a number of accounts of journalists “critical of the govt” through the farmers’ protest.

This is an outright lie by @jack – maybe an try and brush out that very doubtful interval of twitters historical past

Facts and fact@twitter undr Dorsey n his crew had been in repeated n steady violations of India regulation. As a matter of reality they had been in non-compliance with regulation… https://t.co/SlzmTcS3Fa

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) June 13, 2023

Taking to Twitter, Chandrasekhar stated:

“This is an outright lie by @jack – perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history Facts and truth. @twitter undr Dorsey n his team were in repeated n continuous violations of India law. As a matter of fact they were in non-compliance with law repeatedly from 2020 to 2022 and it was only June 2022 when they finally complied. No one went to jail nor was twitter “shutdown”. Dorseys Twitter regime had an issue accepting the sovereignty of Indian regulation. It behaved as if the legal guidelines of India didn’t apply to it. India as a sovereign nation has the best to make sure that its legal guidelines are adopted by all corporations working in India.

During the protests in January 2021, there was a whole lot of misinformation and even experiences of genocide which had been positively faux. GoI was obligated to take away misinformation from the platform as a result of it had the potential to additional inflame the state of affairs primarily based on faux information. Such was the extent of partisan behaviour on Twitter underneath Jack regime, that that they had an issue eradicating misinformation from the platform in India, after they did it themselves when comparable occasions passed off within the USA.

To set the file straight, nobody was raided or despatched to jail. Our focus was solely on making certain the compliance of Indian legal guidelines. There is ample proof now in public area abt Jacks twitter’s arbitrary, blatantly partisan n discriminatory conduct and misuse of its energy on its platform throughout that interval. Twitter underneath Dorsey was not simply violating Indian regulation, however was partisan in the way it was utilizing “deamplify” n deplatforming of some arbitrarily in violation of Art 14,19 of our structure and in addition aiding in weaponising of misinformation. Our govts insurance policies stay clear for all Intermediaries working in India – compliance with legal guidelines to make sure Internet is Safe&Trusted, Accountable”.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who’s a union minister and Member of the Consultative Committee on MoE & IT, Ministry of Communications, primarily stated that Twitter underneath Jack Dorsey was partisan, de-platformed these from India who they thought didn’t conform to their partisan and ideological view and refused to simply accept the sovereignty of Indian legal guidelines.

What Jack Dorsey stated about India

A video went viral on social media on Tuesday, thirteenth June, the place in an interview, former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey went on a tirade in opposition to India, claiming that the Indian govt had threatened Twitter with a shut down if they didn’t withhold accounts that had been vital of the federal government of India through the extraordinarily violent farmers protest.

Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO alleges that through the farmer protest Indian govt pressurized us(Twitter) and stated we are going to shut down Twitter in India, raid the properties of your workers should you don’t hearken to us. pic.twitter.com/tnNYta5G20

— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) June 12, 2023
Indian authorities and the brand new IT pointers 

In February 2020, The central authorities issued recent pointers for social media and OTT platforms. The authorities stated that these pointers had been being launched to “establish a soft touch progressive institutional mechanism with a level playing field featuring a Code of Ethics and a three-tier grievance redressal framework for news publishers and OTT platforms on the digital media”. 

The pointers that had been issued by the central authorities had a number of provisions and a code of ethics for the functioning of OTT platforms, Digital News web sites and Social Media behemoths like Twitter, Facebook and many others.

One of essentially the most vital provisions of those pointers is that if the social media platforms don’t adjust to the provisions prescribed within the pointers, it will entice penal provisions as per the Information Technology Act. The new pointers say that the social media intermediaries should comply with the due diligence talked about in it, and if any middleman doesn’t comply with the due diligence, the protected harbour provisions is not going to apply to them.

The part 79 of the Information Technology Act defines this protected harbour, which principally makes them not answerable for any content material posted by customers on their platforms. It says that an middleman shall not be answerable for any third-party data, information, or communication hyperlink made obtainable or hosted by them, supplied they themselves didn’t provoke such communication, and observes due diligence underneath the IT act.

Now, this due diligence to be noticed by the social media corporations have been outlined within the new pointers. It consists of varied measures they must carry out, like figuring out the primary originator of any data that seems on social media, not permitting content material that’s defamatory, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, inciting violence, in opposition to nationwide integrity, deceptive, false and many others. The platforms additionally must take away any such content material inside 36 hours of receiving a courtroom order or a authorities course to take away such content material.

According to the rules, if the social media websites enable such objectionable content material to be hosted on their platforms, and don’t take away them even after receiving such orders from courts or the federal government, it’s going to imply that they aren’t observing due diligence. As a consequence, they are going to lose the protected harbour within the IT Act that isolates them from content material posted on their platforms.

This means, if the social media corporations don’t adjust to the rules, they are going to be held chargeable for any content material which isn’t allowed as per the rules. And, the officers of the social media corporations will likely be liable to be prosecuted for such content material. This implies that the social media officers may even be punished in keeping with the character of the offence, which is outlined within the IT Act for varied sorts of offences. The punishment outlined within the act consists of imprisonment for 3 years for many offences, however life imprisonment for some like cyber terrorism, and in addition consists of fines of assorted quantities.

When the IT pointers had been issued, some of the vital compliance necessities imposed on social media corporations was the grievance redressal mechanism that they needed to put in place. 

Following are the rules associated to the appointment of grievance officer and the redressal mechanism they had been required to place in place: 

Social media intermediaries shall register the grievance inside 24 hours and get rid of the grievance inside 15 days. 
The Intermediaries should publish a compliance report as soon as a month the place they element the complaints they obtained and the way they redressed the grievance. 
The resident grievance officer shall carry out all capabilities underneath the grievance redressal mechanism. 
All grievance officers ought to have a bodily tackle and that tackle must be printed on the web site and the cell app. 
The particular person appointed because the chief compliance officer shall be a resident of India. 
The nodal contact particular person will likely be chargeable for 24×7 coordination with Indian regulation enforcement companies.

It is pertinent to notice that Twitter underneath Jack Dorsey had breached virtually all the provisions within the IT pointers that had been enforced by the Indian authorities. One can learn a primer on how social media behemoths had been rampantly breaching the regulation to institute a grievance redressal system right here. 

In 2022, Elon Musk had in his courtroom submission spoken extensively about how Twitter was flouting the regulation in India and was selecting a battle the place they didn’t have to. A full report on what Elon Musk had stated about Jack Dorsey’s Twitter breaking legal guidelines in India might be learn right here.