India issued tighter laws for social media applications Facebook, Twitter and Youtube following the government’s attempts to put Twitter under pressure to remove accounts it deemed controversial.
“Social media is welcome to do business in India — they have done exceedingly well, they have brought good business, they have brought good number of users, and they have also empowered ordinary Indians,” stated Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s minister for electronics and information technology.
He added that while the Indian government welcomes criticism and the right to dissent, social media and tech companies are required to take action against the abuse and misuse of social media.
The new rules come just weeks after Twitter failed to comply with orders to curb certain accounts amid the farmers’ protest.
“We don’t want to know the content, but firms need to be able to tell who was the first person who began spreading misinformation or other objectionable content,” said Prasad.
