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NEW DELHI, India, July 7, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Twitter has lost key liability protections in India amid escalating legal troubles for the Big Tech platform around the world.  

In a court filing on Monday, India’s IT ministry said Twitter’s refusal to comply with  

IT guidelines that took effect in May means that the company is now legally liable for user content. Twitter has more than 18 million users in India, one of its top emerging markets.   

The new guidelines include requirements that large social media firms quickly remove flagged content and hire officers to communicate with law enforcement and address user grievances. Twitter has not appointed officers in accordance with the IT rules, among other violations, the government’s court filing with the High Court of Dehli said.  

“I state that the immunity conferred on intermediaries under section 79(1) is a conditional immunity subject to the intermediary satisfying the conditions under sections 79(2) and 79(3). As provided in Rule 7, failure to observe the IT Rules 2021 results in provisions of Section 79(1) of the IT Act, 2000 not being applicable to such an intermediary,” wrote N. Samaya Balan with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. 

Police in India have already initiated five cases against Twitter or the platform’s Indian officials, according to TechCrunch. Last month, Indian police summoned the head of Twitter India over claims that the company did not do enough to stop a viral video that allegedly misled viewers and inflamed tensions between Hindus and Muslims. 

Twitter, which has purged numerous conservative figures and outlets such as LifeSiteNews in recent months, has said that India’s crackdown on social media poses a “potential threat to freedom of expression.” President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers, including Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of  Missouri, have tried to strip liability protections of Big Tech firms in the United States in response to selective censorship of American users.  

In addition to its Indian troubles, Twitter is facing new legal pressure in France, Reuters reported Tuesday, with a French court ordering the company to explain how it will restrict “hate speech.” Twitter will have two months to detail plans for suppressing “hateful” content after a lawsuit by left-wing groups. 

And in the U.K., a bill proposed earlier this year would introduce substantial fines for Big Tech platforms that do not remove material deemed “racist abuse,” as well as child sexual abuse content or threats against individuals. The legislation would prohibit discrimination against political viewpoints, the British government has said.  

Twitter also remains locked out of Nigeria after being banned from the country in June for censoring a tweet by the Nigerian president. Lawsuits filed against the ban are pending.