Twitter loses legal protection, fails to comply with new IT rules: Official

Twitter will be considered an intermediary once it follows the new Information Technology (IT) rules and it will no longer be protected from penal action under Section 79 of the IT Act, which absolves social media firms of liability for third party content, if it did not do so, a government official said on Wednesday.

“Now, if there is a case in court, Twitter cannot seek safe harbour under the Information Technology Act. In any case, filed after May 26, Twitter cannot say it is an intermediary and claim exception.”

The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules were notified in February and came into force on May 25.