IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s censure of Twitter, after it temporarily blocked his account upon receiving a notice for copyright violation last week, is valid, but only to an extent. Mr. Prasad was right in calling out Twitter, as he did over a series of tweets, for not giving him prior notice of the blocking, as required by India’s IT Act rules. The blocking was triggered because Twitter had reportedly received a notice for violations under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), filed by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, the content in question being A.R. Rahman’s song ‘Maa Tujhe Salaam’. Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, replied to Mr. Prasad, saying he had a similar experience. “Locking is a foolish response to a DMCA notice; disabling the video (which they’ve now done) should be enough,” Mr. Tharoor wrote. Having raised the issue, however, Mr. Prasad went on a needless attempt to make the issue look more than what it really is. One of his tweets in this regard was this: “It is apparent that my statements calling out the high handedness and arbitrary actions of Twitter, particularly sharing the clips of my interviews to TV channels and its powerful impact, have clearly ruffled its feathers.”
It is quite likely that this is just a case of a global platform struggling to adhere to the laws of multiple jurisdictions where it has substantial interests. Mr. Tharoor’s point in this regard needs highlighting. He tweeted, “But getting a notice from a UK-based organisation, citing @Twitter’s role as a ‘service provider’ under a US law, points to the challenges of @TwitterIndia’s operations in India.” Nothing more needs to be read into it. Mr. Prasad’s outburst is a pointer to the level of deterioration in the relationship between Twitter and the Indian Government. Their already strained relationship has worsened further after Twitter’s defiance in not accepting all of the Government’s takedown requests from time to time. The problematic new IT rules have also contributed to this unease. But then Twitter also has to share some blame. It has opened itself up to attacks from all sides because of its inability to pull down or label problematic content consistently. It has also come across as being indifferent in adhering to the requirements of the new IT rules, including the timely appointment of a grievance officer. On the other hand, it would be best for the Government to just let the rules do the talking rather than take every opportunity to raise the pitch. This only makes it look inefficient and cantankerous.
