The government has issued a notice to Twitter to comply with all its past orders by July 4, an official source said on Wednesday. The Ministry of Electronics and IT has set a deadline of July 4, failing which Twitter may lose intermediary status, which means it will be liable for all the comments posted on its platform.
“A notice was issued on June 27 to Twitter to comply with all government orders issued till date. Twitter was issued notices earlier this month but it did not comply with it. This is the final notice,” a government source told PTI.
An email query sent to Twitter elicited no immediate response.
Twitter has been at loggerheads with the government on several occasions.
On June 26, the microblogging site submitted a list of over 80 Twitter accounts and tweets that it has blocked based on a request from the government in 2021.
The request from the government was to block multiple accounts and some tweets from the international advocacy group Freedom House, journalists, politicians and supporters of the farmers’ protest.
The government source, however, said that there are several other orders, with which Twitter is yet to comply and they have been given a final deadline of July 4 for compliance.
The requests from the government were sent between January 5, 2021, and December 29, 2021, according to the document filed with the Lumen database.
Leading internet companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter file information with the Lumen database about weblinks or accounts that they have been asked to block by any entity under applicable laws.
However, details about whether the request to block a link or account was fulfilled are not available on the database.
International group Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the government’s move to block tweets of journalists — Rana Ayyub and CJ Werleman.