New Delhi: New IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shot off a warning to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, telling the social media giant "the law of the land is supreme" and warning it to follow the rules.
On a question that Twitter was not adhering to IT rules, he said whosoever lives and works in India will have to abide by the rules of the country.
Vaishnaw was talking to reporters after meeting BJP general secretary (Organisation) B L Santhosh at the party office here.
Vaishnav, the MP from Odisha, on Wednesday took oath as the Cabinet Minister and was given the charge of Railways along with the Information and Technology Ministry. He replaced Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was lately locked in a bitter row with Twitter over the new IT rules.
He said was thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving him the responsibility. He said his focus will be on improving the life of the last man standing in the queue.
In past, Vaishnav, while speaking in the Rajya Sabha, had raised the issue of cyber bullying of Karnataka-based Rashmi Samant's resignation from the position of Oxford Student Union President in the United Kingdom and described it as a serious case of racism.
Twitter on Friday sought eight weeks' time to appoint a grievance officer in India, telling the Delhi High Court that it will make its first compliance report public by July 11.
Twitter also told the Court that it has engaged the services of the Interim Chief Compliance Officer as a contingent worker via a third-party contractor and has also addressed a communication to MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology).
The response from Twitter came after the Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the micro-blogging site for failing to appoint resident grievance officer (RGO), saying, "How long will your process take place? This cannot be allowed", and gave free pass to the Central government to act against the social media firm.
