IT Rules: Twitter Releases First Transparency Report, Suspends More Than 4,000 Accounts Over 'Promotion Of Terrorism'

These actions by Twitter come after the Delhi High Court on Thursday said that the Central Government can initiate action in accordance with the new IT rules in case of non-compliance.

Representative Photo: Getty Images

New Delhi: Microblogging platform Twitter has released its first India-specific "transparency report" on Sunday amid its ongoing tussle with the union government over the new IT rules.

This comes as Twitter India also appointed Vinay Prakash as its resident grievance officer (RGO) for India, as informed on the company’s website. 

According to the new IT rules, online platforms that have over 5 million users need to publish compliance reports every month stating details of complaints received and action taken on them.

"In compliance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, Twitter is required to publish a monthly compliance report which includes the details of complaints from users via the India grievance mechanism and action taken on them, as well as information related to Twitter’s proactive monitoring efforts under the IT Rules," Twitter stated in its "inaugural" report.

"Going forward, we will be publishing this report on a monthly basis, and we are committed to making improvements over time, based on feedback received from the government, or in accordance with internal changes that allow for us to provide more granular data," it informed.

The transparency report informs about data from May 26 to June 25 and includes complaints regarding harassment, defamation, terrorism and impersonation among others.

According to it, Twitter registered 37 complaints, of which the highest (20) were regarding defamation. The microblogging platform has acted against 132 tweets related to these complaints.

Twitter also suspended 22,564 accounts for content related to 'Child Sexual Exploitation, Non-Consensual Nudity' and similar activities (18,385) and 'Promotion of Terrorism' (4,179) in its efforts for "proactive monitoring" content which is identified by employing internal proprietary tools and industry sharing initiatives.

"We may not remove content or all aspects of a grievance for a variety of reasons. For example, the grievance may fail to identify content on Twitter, the content may have been removed by the user that posted it, or we find no violation of our Terms of Service (TOS) or the Twitter Rules. Our analysis, and any reasons for not taking action, are specific to each grievance," the report states.

As for the resident grievance officer (RGO) for India, information updated on Twitter’s website revealed Vinay Prakash to be appointed for the post. Users can contact him using an email ID listed on the page.

“Twitter can be contacted in India at the following address: 4th Floor, The Estate, 121 Dickenson Road, Bangalore 560 042,” the page reads.

 

These actions by Twitter come after the Delhi High Court on Thursday said that the Central Government can initiate action against the micrblogging platform in accordance with the new IT rules in case of non-compliance.

 It noted that there is no interim protection for Twitter and the Centre is free to take any action if the micro-blogging site breaches the new IT rules.

"It is made clear that since this court has not passed any interim order, this court has granted time to Respondent No 2 (Twitter Inc) to file affidavit, no protection is granted," a bench of Justice Rekha Palli said adding that Centre can take action against Twitter in case of any breach of the rules.

The hearing in the matter was adjourned till July 28.