Ashwanth Vidhya, Mumbai Uncensored, 15th July 2021:
Twitter, the microblogging and social network site, filed its first grievance redressal report as per India’s new IT Rules. In the report, they stated that they had suspended 22,564 accounts created on their platform due to them not following the regulations monitored by the government and the platform. They were suspended because they fell under the category of accounts circulating content that can be classified as “child sexual exploitation and non-consensual nudity” and “promotion of terrorism”.
In the report, they said, “We receive complaints in our Grievance Officer – India channel that relate to account verification, account access, or seeking assistance or information regarding an account or Twitter’s enforcement actions that are not included in the data below. The majority of complaints received in this channel during this reporting period fell into these categories”
They also said, “In addition to the above data, we processed 56 grievances which were appealing Twitter account suspensions. These were all resolved and the appropriate responses were sent. We overturned 7 of the account suspensions based on the specifics of the situation, but the other accounts remain suspended.”
The new Minister for Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw affirmed that the new Information Technology (IT) Act, 2021 will protect the interests of the users in various social media platforms and that “the law of the land is supreme” when it comes to matters regarding social media regulation and the companies not wanting to adhere to it.
Twitter finally decided to adhere to the new rules by appointing Vinay Prakash as its Resident Grievance Officer. This move comes after they confirmed their intention to appoint a grievance officer as per regulations to the Delhi High Court.
