User responsible for content: Twitter to Telangana High Court

HYDERABAD: Micro-blogging platform Twitter Inc. on Thursday informed the Telangana High Court that it neither reviews nor edits the content of a tweet, including hashtags, prior to it being posted on Twitter. 

While filing a counter affidavit in the PIL filed by advocate Khaja Aijazuddin, seeking action against Twitter and the users for hashtags trending on its platform, like “Islamiccoronavirusjihad”, “Coronajihad” and “Tablighijamat” during Covid-19 pandemic, Twitter said that it is the user of the platform who is also the author and publisher of the tweet or hashtag and under the terms of service, it is the user who assumes responsibility for the content posted on the platform. The company added that it does not discharge duties of public nature, and it is entitled to statutory immunity provided under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. 

Twitter, represented by its senior counsel Micah L Rubbo of the USA, in its counter stated that “no obligation can be cast upon an intermediary to proactively monitor content, and hence the question of filtering content at source does not arise under the current legal regime”. 

When the matter came up for hearing before division bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Viijaysen Reddy, advocate Aijazuddin sought some time to file reply to Twitter’s counter affidavit and also urged the court to direct the Centre to file counter affidavit in the case.