‘Don't lecture us on democracy’: IT minister slams Twitter over new rules

Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that the India was proud of being the worlds largest democracy and the government welcomes criticism but noncompliance of law under the garb of freedom of speech and democracy is not acceptableThe minister also said that the social media platform should not lecture us on democracyHe said that India has the distinction of being the worlds largest and the most vibrant democracy and gave the example that the BJP won the Assam assembly polls but lost in West Bengal electionsHe said that in India the judiciary questions the government the media questions senior ministers Today there are 100 crores users of Twitter in India I am happy Let them earn money Allow users to criticise us Most welcome But when these profitmaking companies start lecturing us on democracyI would like to ask a question India is a democracy because its elections are fair We won Assam and lost Bengal recently We have I dependent judiciary that keeps us asking questions like in the case of Covid19 Media asks tough questions from a senior minister Thats what freedom of speech and democracy is about These issues are important But under the garb of these you think you wont comply then its a misplaced argument said the Union MinisterThis comes in the backdrop of the intermediary status of Twitter being removed and making the microblogging site liable under provisions including the Indian Penal CodeI am not the one who declared it removal of Twitters intermediary status the law has If others followed why couldnt they We asked for three officers to be appointed in three months and the period had exhausted on May 26 We gave them the last opportunity as goodwill gesture the minister saidThe microblogging site the minister said had failed to appoint executives in the roles of resident grievance officer nodal officer and chief compliance officer as per norms of the government to deal with abuse and use of social mediaWe gave them Twitter three months time Others have followed they havent Rule 7 of IT guidelines says if you dont comply then under Sec 79 you may lose intermediary status and may become liable to other laws including penal laws of the country Prasad saidThe Minister said that guidelines had been a work in progress for the last three to four yearsThe minister said that Twitters noncompliance with the new IT Rules means that it has lost its status as an intermediary and now it can be held responsible for usergenerated contentEarlier Twitter was accorded protection as a third party intermediary under Section 79 of the Information Technology IT Act which states that any intermediary shall not be held legally or otherwise liable for any third party information data or communication link made available or hosted on its platform Other social media platforms such as YouTube Facebook WhatsApp continue to remain protectedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever