It began in February with a tweet by pop star Rihanna that sparked widespread condemnation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s handling of massive farmer protests near the capital, souring an already troubled relationship between the government and Twitter.
Moving to contain the backlash, officials hit Twitter with multiple injunctions to block hundreds of tweets critical of the government. Twitter complied with some and resisted others.
Relations between Twitter and Modi’s government have gone downhill ever since.
What does the law say?
At the heart of the standoff is a sweeping internet law that puts digital platforms such as Twitter and Facebook under direct government oversight.
The new rules, in the works for years and announced in February, apply to social media companies, streaming platforms and digital news publishers. They make it easier for the government to order social media platforms with more than five million users to take down content that is deemed unlawful.
Individuals now can request that companies remove material. If a government ministry flags content as illegal or harmful, it must be removed within 36 hours. Noncompliance could lead to criminal prosecutions.
Tech companies also must assign staff to answer complaints from users, respond to government requests and ensure overall compliance with the rules.
Twitter missed a three-month deadline in May, drawing a strong rebuke from the Delhi High Court. Last week, after months of haggling with the government, it appointed all three officers as required.
“Twitter continues to make every effort to comply with the new IT Rules 2021. We have kept the Government of India apprised of the progress at every step of the process,” the company said in a statement to The Associated Press news agency.
Officials say the rules are needed to quell misinformation and hate speech and to give users more power to flag objectionable content.
But critics of the law worry it may lead to outright censorship in a country where digital freedoms have been shrinking since Modi took office in 2014.
Police have raided Twitter’s offices and accused its India chief, Manish Maheshwari, of spreading “communal hatred” and “hurting the sentiments of Indians”.
Last week, Maheshwari refused to submit to questioning unless police promised not to arrest him.
On Wednesday, the company released a transparency report showing India had submitted most government information requests – legal demands for account information – to Twitter. It accounted for a quarter of worldwide requests between July and December last year.
It was the first time since Twitter started publishing the report in 2012 that the United States was displaced as the “top global requester”, it added.
