Chennai: The Delhi High Court has said the Central Government can initiate action against Twitter in accordance with the new IT rules in case of non-compliance even as the micro-blogging site submitted a timeline on the appointment process of officers as mandated while maintaining that it reserves the right to challenge the rules.
Meanwhile, observing that digital platforms like Facebook have become power centres with ability to influence opinions, the Supreme Court on Thursday said they must be accountable, adding it is difficult to accept the ‘simplistic approach’ adopted by Facebook that it is merely a platform posting third party information and has no role in generating, controlling or modulating that matter.
Twitter no longer enjoys the liability protection against user-generated content in India, the government said in a court filing as tension escalates between the two over India’s new IT rules.
In a court filing, the government said Twitter has lost its immunity in India after the American social network failed to comply with the new local IT rules, which were unveiled in February and went into effect in late May.
As far as Facebook is concerned, further observing that the national capital can ill-afford any repetition of the riots witnessed last year, the Supreme Court stressed that ‘unity in diversity’ of India cannot be disrupted and the role of Facebook in this context must be looked into by the powers that be.
“This (unity in diversity) cannot be disrupted at any cost or under any professed freedom by a giant like Facebook claiming ignorance or lack of any pivotal role,” the court said, and dismissed the plea filed by Facebook India vice president and MD Ajit Mohan and others challenging the summons issued by the Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony committee for failing to appear before it as witness in connection with last year’s north-east Delhi riots that left 53 people dead and 200 injured.