Twitter India releases its transparency report under new IT rules

Twitter India on Sunday published its transparency report in accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules (IT Rules), 2021.

It published the data it received via its grievance offi­cer between May 26, 2021, and June 25, 2021, that included content on Twitter. It also includes complaints received from individual users with accompanying court orders.

According to the data, Twitter in India received the highest number of complaints, 20, relating to defamation. It took action on 87 URLs based on these complaints.

The microblogging platform received 6 complaints relating to abuse/harassment, and took action on 38 URLs based on these.

As part of its proactive monitoring efforts, Twitter provided the number of global actions it took on accounts.

It said it suspended 18,385 accounts for showing child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and similar content, while 4,179 accounts were suspended for promotion of terrorism.

“In addition to the above data, we processed 56 grievances which were appealing Twitter account suspensions. These were all resolved and the appropriate responses sent. We overturned 7 of the account suspensions based on specifics of the situation, but the other accounts remain suspended,” the company said. 

Other big tech firms Google and Facebook also published similar reports in compliance with the new IT Rules.

The IT Rules, notified on February 25, ask significant social media intermediaries, or those with over 5 million users, to “publish periodic compliance reports every month, mentioning details of the complaints received and action taken thereon.

Also, the number of specific communication links or parts of information that the intermediary has removed or disabled access to in pursuance of any proactive monitoring conducted by using automated tools or any other relevant information as may be specified.” The transparency report filed by Google under the IT Rules currently covers complaints received and action taken between April 1 and April 30 this year. Google said there will be a two-month lag for reporting to allow sufficient time for data processing and validation.

The total number of complaints received by Google in the reported period was 27,762, of which 96.2 per cent were related to copyright issues. Around 1.3 per cent were related to trademark, 1 per cent defamation, 0.4 per cent related to counterfeit issues and 0.4 per cent related to circumvention.

The number of removal actions taken by Google based on these complaints were 59,350. 

In an interim compliance report filed on July 2, Facebook said it took action on 2.5 million pieces of “violent and graphic content” between May 15 and June 15.

On Instagram, the highest number of contents actioned —699,000 — was under “suicide and self-injury,” of which the proactive rate was 99.8 per cent. This was followed by 668,000 pieces of violent and graphic content,” and the proactive rate was 99.7 per cent.