Law of land supreme, Twitter will have to follow rules: IT minister

The Delhi High Court on Thursday told social media giant Twitter that it will not enjoy legal protection if it does not follow India's new information technology rules, which includes clauses like appointing compliance officers based in the country. The remark came after Twitter told the court that it has appointed an interim chief compliance officer, who is a resident of India, two days ago but sought eight weeks to appoint a grievance officer in the country. Twitter said an interim grievance officer will be appointed by July 11 and that an interim nodal contact person will be appointed in two weeks.

The court asked the social media company to file an affidavit declaring these details formally within two weeks and also asked all interim officers appointed by Twitter to file affidavits stating they would take responsibility for the duties tasked to them. Appointments for three full-time positions - a chief compliance officer, a resident grievance officer and a nodal contact person - will be made in eight weeks, Twitter said, adding it is accepting applications for these roles for which job openings have been posted.

Meanwhile, new IT minister Ashwini Vaishnav has said that  "the law of the land is supreme" and urging Twitter to follow the rules. The message comes amid a bitter row between Twitter and the government over the new IT rules that make social media websites more accountable for third-party content; experts say this means Twitter has lost legal immunity with respect to claims against user-generated content.