NEW DELHI, July 3: Even as the war of words continued between the centre and the Twitter, the union information and technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was in all praise for several other social media platforms including Facebook, Google and Instagram for their transparency as they submitted their compliance reports.
Social media giant Facebook claimed to have taken action against 30 million content pieces between May 15 and June 15. Google said it has removed 59,350 pieces of content and Instagram is believed to have taken action against about two million content pieces during the same period of time. “This is a big step towards transparency,” Prasad said on Twitter which has fallen out of favour with the government.
“Nice to see significant social media platforms like Google, Facebook and Instagram following the new IT Rules. First compliance report on voluntary removal of offensive posts published by them as per IT Rules is a big step towards transparency,” the minister tweeted.
This removal of content is not prodded by the government or any other constitutional authority. This falls under voluntary removal of offensive posts and the social media intermediaries with over 5 million users, under the new IT rules, are required to publish periodic compliance reports every month.
Koo, the home-grown competition of San Francisco-headquartered Twitter, also submitted its report stating it has proactively moderated 54,235 content pieces, while 5,502 posts were reported by its users during June.
The new IT rules have become a flashpoint in the ongoing tussle between the government and Twitter as Twitter is still working to comply with the rules beyond the deadline. On Saturday, it informed the Delhi high court that it is finalising the appointment of a new resident grievance office in India. Early in June, Twitter appointed Dharmendra Chatur in the post but he resigned later in the month following which the company appointed Jeremy Kessel. Since Jeremy is a US national, it violates the new IT rules.
Apart from the issue of the IT rules, Twitter has recently come under fire for showing an incorrect map of India on the site and for blocking the minister’s account.
Earlier in the day, Twitter told the Delhi High Court that an Interim Resident Grievance Officer would be appointed soon in India. Till then, complaints are being addressed by other personnel, the micro-blogging site said.
Twitter was responding to a case was filed in High Court by a user alleging that his complaint against Tweets were not acted upon promptly by the social media giant.
“An Interim Resident Grievance officer was appointed as per the new IT Rules. However, even before steps could be taken to completely formalise the arrangement, the official withdrew his candidature on 21.6.2021,” Twitter told the High court.
“We are in the final stages of appointing a replacement. In the meanwhile, the grievances of Indian users are being addressed by the Grievance Officer,” it said in an affidavit filed by Micah L Rubbo, Senior Counsel and Twitter Inc’s Director of Litigation.
But it said the “petition is not maintainable since Twitter is a corporation registered in United States of America.” Significant social media intermediaries are required to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal officer, and a grievance officer — all whom are required to be residents of India, according to the IT rules. Non-compliance would result in these platforms losing their intermediary status that provides them immunity from liabilities over any third-party data hosted by them. In other words, they could be liable for criminal action in case of complaints.
(Manas Dasgupta)