Social media companies free to do business, but should be accountable to Indian laws: Ravi Shankar Prasad

New Delhi, July 01: Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that Twitter invoked a US copyright act to block accounts of users, while adding that the company should be cognisant of the laws in India where it is operating and earning money.

Speaking at the India Global Forum, he said, "if you are going to invoke the digital copyright act of America then you have to also be cognisant of the copyright rules of India."

Twitter had last week blocked Prasad's personal account for an hour on a complaint that was made four years back under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States.

You cannot say my whole stand will be regularised by an ex-parte assessment of the US law. For a happy blending on the role of big tech and democracy a solution hast to be found, Prasad also said. He also said that social media companies are free to do business in India, but they have to be accountable to the Indian Constitution and laws.

"If democracy has to survive misinformation, fake news, colluded material...all these are challenges. I am not in favour of censoring but democracies have to find a common ground as far as these issues are concerned so that these big tech companies do their business, earn good money, good profit but become accountable. This can only happen if you follow law of the land," he also said.