Twitter’s first report card, 94 complaints received and action taken on 133 URLs

People are aware of the tussle between the central government and social media platform Twitter over the new IT rules in India. Along with this, it has also come to the fore that Twitter has been reluctant to accept the new rules. But now the news is that it has started working according to these new rules. Yes, because Twitter has published a compliance report. In this, information has been given about the action taken on the complaints received during 26 May to 25 June. 

First compliance report, 94 complaints received

Microblogging platform Twitter received 94 complaints from May 26 to June 25 and taken ‘action’ on 133 URLs during this period. This information has been given in Twitter’s first compliance report. Issuance of compliance report is mandatory under the new IT rules. The US firm has appointed Vinay Prakash as its Resident Grievance Officer in India amid a dispute with the government over new IT regulations.

Twitter has also published its first compliance report under these rules. In its India Transparency Report: User Complaints and Forward Monitoring, July 2021 report, Twitter said it had received 94 complaints. During May 26, 2021 to June 25, 2021, it has ‘action’ on 133 URLs. These include complaints from individual users with court orders.

20 Defamation, Six Exploitation/Abuse and Four Obscene Content Complaints

Twitter said that of the complaints received through the Complaints Officer-Indian channel, 20 were related to defamation, six exploitation/abuse and four related to sensitive adult content. Apart from this, three complaints were related to violation of privacy and one complaint related to infringement of intellectual property. Apart from this, the company has also settled 56 complaints appealing for suspension of Twitter accounts and appropriate response has been sent to them.

Complaint of suspension of seven accounts dismissed

Twitter has dismissed complaints of suspension of seven accounts in accordance with the special situation. Others, however, had accounts suspended. Twitter suspended 18,385 accounts under a separate category – ‘aware data-monitoring’. These accounts were suspended for child abuse, pornography and other similar content. 4,179 accounts were closed on charges of promoting terrorism.

Twitter has about 1.75 crore users in India

Twitter is having a dispute with the Indian government over the new social media rules. Twitter has lost its legal shield as an intermediary in India. Now it will be responsible for any kind of illegal content posted by the users.

These companies have already submitted their reports

Twitter said that going forward, it will publish the report on a monthly basis and it will improve over time. Companies such as Google, Facebook and Koo have already published their first compliance reports under the IT regulations. Facebook said it “action” on 30 million content across 10 infringing categories between May 15 and June 15. Meanwhile, Instagram processed two million pieces of content across nine categories.