Thread by @nixxin

Seeing lots of tweets suggesting that Twitter & Facebook might be banned tomorrow after IT Rules 2021 come into effect.

Some news entities irresponsibility playing on this with alarmist clickbait headlines too
indiatoday.in/technology/new…

This is wrong. I'll explain:

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1. IT Rules 2021 are coming into effect tomorrow, and even if the deadline won't get extended, the Govt is unlike to enforce all the provisions & hold platforms to account unless it really needs to, because the platforms could then move court to challenge the guidelines.
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The govt wouldn't want to give platforms reason to go to court because these rules are so majorly unconstitutional that they won't want to risk embarassment in courts. The rules are already being challenged on such grounds btw. Need more.

2. Govt was expected to issue a set of

FAQs to explain exactly how these guidelines are being implemented. It's clear that the FAQs are not ready yet. Implementation of these rules is unclear until these FAQs are issued. It's very likely that the deadline will be extended to give @GoI_MeitY and MIB time to figure

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these rules out, because the rules themselves are a complete mess, and many propositions are arbitrary.

3. To remind you, the requirement for platforms to have a grievance officer is old. For years after that provision came into being, most platforms did not have a grievance
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officer. Remember @rsprasad writing to whatsapp, complaining about them not having a grievance officer? Govt could have filed a case against them. But didn't. Why not? All talk, no action. The rules are on a weak footing and any heavy handed action will expose this.

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4. There is ZERO chance of the government blocking US based platforms because of the power that the US government wields. There is ZERO chance of the Indian govt blocking US platforms when Jaishankar is in the US to engage with the US government.

5. What do the rules do?
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They give the govt of India a stick to wield. Arbitrarily. They'll use it to threaten, intimidate, bully. They've done that before. Yes, platforms need to be regulated. But in a manner that gives users power over platforms. Not in a manner that empowers govt & allows them
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To use platforms to control user speech. The IT Rules, and much of Indian law suffers from arbitrary implementation. This will be no different. Anyone saying that platforms will be banned tomorrow doesn't know what they're talking about.

6. There's a valid argument that
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Platforms have not been given enough time to set up processes. Can't expect whatsapp to rearchitect their platform globally within 3 months (if at all). Can't expect companies with 400+ million users to set up processes to deal with user complaints within 15 days, within a
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span as short as 3 months. The chief compliance officer will have to take criminal liability, and will probably be impossible to recruit. The govt needs to rework these rules and set aside its ego. These rules were rushed through in response to the Twitter faceoff in Jan.
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7. Fun fact: MyGov.in and Namo app are also likely to be significant social media intermediaries as per the definition. Are they complaint with IT Rules 2021? Do they have a chief compliance officer and a grievance officer?
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Update: seems mygov does. Thanks for clarifying @abhish18 :

https://twitter.com/abhish18/status/1397209153878253573?s=19

Problem with the IT Rules, not enough time to comply. See comparison:

https://twitter.com/dmcorpaffair/status/1397357375330291717?s=19