Indian government's new IT rules add tensions to its uneasy relation with 'Big Tech'

Police in India stormed Twitter's office in New Delhi last month and officials from a particular cell, which normally investigates crimes such as for example terrorism, were among the raiding party.

The reason behind the raid: a tweet by a spokesman of India's ruling party which the microblogging site labelled as “manipulated media” on its platform.

The incident is widely regarded as a flash point in increasingly tense relations between US social media companies and the government in the world's second-biggest internet market.

The storming of Twitter's office follows prime minister Narendra Modi government's efforts to bring social media companies under a fresh framework of IT rules which were announced in February. The raid even preceded the finish of May effective date of the brand new regulations which may have triggered concerns among major social media platforms about privacy and control of content.

The brand new rules require large social media companies - both foreign and local - to appoint compliance executives to co-ordinate with police, setup grievance redressal mechanisms and remove content within 36 hours if they get a legal order to take action. They also have to reveal the “first originator of information” if authorities demand it.

“Social media platforms will at first have a tough time complying with the brand new IT rules,” says Ashok Kadsur, co-founder of SignDesk, a Bangalore-based IT firm. “These rules will require social media giants to pour more resources into regional operations and create an efficient system to streamline the massive number of grievances which will undoubtedly be coming their way.”

The stakes for these global companies are enormous. With a large, young population, India is a lucrative market for global social media firms, which have invested heavily in the country.

The united states had some 448 million social media users as of January 2021, up by 21 % on gross annual basis, according to figures published by DataReportal and Hootsuite.

Capturing market share in India can be needed for companies like Google and Facebook, as growth in the US and Europe is plateauing.

“During the past, social media giants could have pushed back against these new rules,” says Mr Kadsur. “However, with markets in Europe and the US slowly reaching saturation, platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are actually placing all their eggs in India’s basket.”

Issues these businesses are facing in India are part of a much broader battle between big technology companies and authorities in other parts of the world. A global debate is raging on methods to enforce regulatory controls without jeopardising privacy and freedom of speech in democratic countries.

The Indian government has cited maintaining “law and order and national security” as factors behind the brand new rules, but companies are concerned that the regulations could impact privacy and freedom of expression.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp - which includes 400 million users in India, its biggest market - has filed a lawsuit against the Indian government.

But pressure on these businesses is mounting and Twitter has recently come under fire from the federal government for delaying compliance.

The federal government this month told Twitter that it had been being given a final chance to stick to the brand new rules, or it would face “unintended consequences”, Reuters reported, citing a government letter. With some 17.5 million users, India has Twitter's third-largest user base worldwide, after the US and Japan.

Twitter in a statement to The National said it “remains deeply focused on India”.

“We have assured the government of India that Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new guidelines and a synopsis on our progress has been duly shared,” it said.

The business will continue its "constructive dialogue with the Indian government”, it added.

Industry insiders say eventually social media companies must fall in line.

“India's an extremely crucial market for these companies,” Mehar Gulati, founder of pr and social media agency, Scarlet Relations, says. “The firms could have no choice but to adhere to the regulations if they desire to continue their operations.”

However, legal experts say Indian government rules are in conflict with privacy guidelines of social media companies.

“This is the primary issue between your government and the companies, as an argument of infringement of usage of privacy is being made,” says Ashutosh Shekhar Paarcha, a Supreme Court advocate.

“The underlying issue is that [some of] these companies have already boasted to their users about [their] privacy ... and how they offer end-to-end encryption. The firms [now] feel they could visit a major [reduction in] users if these rules are complied with.”

WhatsApp has long assured its users that its messaging service is “end-to-end encrypted” which ensures that users can communicate privately without the messages being stored or obvious to others. This is a significant point of attraction for those who are increasingly becoming worried about privacy issues.

The messaging iphone app "doesn't have an excellent case [in court]” with the brand new regulations and that your best option could possibly be “back door conversations with the federal government and try to reach a consensus there”, Mr Paarcha says.

WhatsApp's parent company Facebook in a May 26 statement said the business aims to "comply with the provisions of the IT rules and continue to discuss some of the issues, which need more engagement with the government”.

"Pursuant to the IT Rules, we will work to implement operational processes and improve efficiencies,” it said, adding that the business “remains focused on people’s capability to freely and safely express themselves on our platform”.

There has been some underlying tension between the Indian government and social media companies during the past over content that was posted on these platforms.

Last month, the social media giants were ordered to remove posts that criticised the Indian government's response to the coronavirus pandemic amid a deadly second wave of infections. The firms complied with the request and removed those posts in the Indian market.

In another incident in February, Twitter refused to block some accounts which criticised India's controversial farm reforms.

If social media companies do not comply with the brand new IT rules, “the likely consequences could vary on a spectrum from mere fines being levied to the other extreme that they might be banned in India”, Mr Paarcha says.

Local employees are also vulnerable to imprisonment if the firms do not follow the brand new code.

The government has already proved that it is willing to take strict measures, Mr Paarcha says. The Chinese video sharing application TikTok, which had enormous popularity in India, was banned last year amid border tensions with China.

The best plan of action perhaps for India's social media companies is to push for relaxations from the government, industry experts say.

“It is important to come quickly to a mutual agreement which benefits the government ... [and is also] in public areas interest,” says Husain Habib, co-founder and chief marketing officer at Hats-Off Digital, a digital media marketing agency. “If it is a good deal for both, the companies themselves will follow the regulations imposed.”

The problem, however, is complex and there is unlikely to become a magic pill. The authorities are “only doing their job, but you are [also] taking away the user's to privacy aswell ... and [trying to] dictate terms in the world's most significant democracy”.