Is Twitter acting too defiant?

Krishna Saagar Rao's write-up made an interesting read. At the outset, when other social media outfits had fallen in line to comply by the new IT rules, defiance displayed by Twitter to comply with the country's new IT rules is simply not understandable.

Despite the amount of detailed explanation and providing several opportunities to revise its stand, Twitter still adamant and unwilling to comply not only amounts to showing scant respect for indian laws but also reveals its intention to deliberately avoid compliance of new laws.

Further, by taking a hard line on the new rules initially then trying to dilly-dally by coming up with excuses even when it failed to comply with intermediary guidelines is baffling. What is more surprising is Twitter cared less to address the grievances of users by refusing to set the process as mandated by the law?

Shockingly, its arbitrariness in fighting fake news and inconsistency in fighting misinformation which have led to hatred and violence time and again in India on account of fake news circulation, one fails to understand as to why Twitter is showing reluctance to follow indian laws even when it follows local laws in other countries without hesitation. Twitter must understand that to stay in the business in India, merely stating that as a flag bearer of free speech in India, it cannot comply the new rules is ridiculous and unacceptable by any yardstick.

Though government may find hard to revoke the intermediary status of Twiiter in case of non-compliance with the new IT rules as they are protected by section 79 of the IT act, still it is paramount for social media to keep in view the culture of India which vastly varies from the west to follow the new rules of IT framed taking into account the cultural geography of India in order to fight the menace of fake and false news effectively.

— K R Srinivasan, Secunderabad