Twitter to comply with internet law in Turkey, is India next?

Facing intense scrutiny over the presence of bad accounts and troll armies on its platform globally including in India, Twitter has announced to establish a legal entity in Turkey to continue operating there under the country’s internet law that came into place last year.

Under the new law, social media firms that have more than one million users must store the users’ data in the country.

Twitter said in a statement that in a continuing effort to provide its service in Turkey, “we have decided to establish a legal entity”.

“We will continue to work to protect the public conversation in Turkey, empowering people to have access to that conversation, and advocating for our values,” the micro-blogging platform added.

India has also raised similar demands from Twitter to keep its platform sanitised for meaningful conversations and remove bad accounts.

The Indian government last month announced new stringent guidelines for social media platforms along with code of ethics for over-the-top (OTT) platforms and digital media.

According to Union Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, social media platforms will be classified under two categories — social media intermediaries and significant social media intermediaries — with the latter being subject to greater obligations.

The new Intermediary Liability Rules ask social media companies with over 5 million users in India to not only enable traceability of end-to-end encrypted messages but also establish local offices with senior officials to deal with law enforcement and user grievances.

Twitter said, in reference to Turkey, that the company is “committed to protecting and defending the Open Internet, and as part of this work, have called for the establishment of regional and global standards for online services”.

“We believe that global and not fragmented frameworks protect online communities and their rights and ensure they can experience the Internet in the same way across the world,” the Jack Dorsey-run company noted.

The Indian Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 mandate that the intermediaries, including social media intermediaries must establish a grievance redressal mechanism for receiving resolving complaints from the users or victims.

Intermediaries will have to appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officer.

“Grievance Officer shall acknowledge the complaint within 24 hours and resolve it within 15 days from its receipt,” said an official statement.