The newly sworn-in Information and Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday while commenting on Twitter’s standoff with the central government over new IT rules said that all those who live and work in India will have to abide by the rules of the country.
Vaishnaw, a Rajya Sabha member 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 senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad in the IT Ministry.
US-based company Twitter has been in the eye of a storm over its alleged failure to comply with the new IT rules in India, which mandates, among other requirements, the appointment of three key personnel -- chief compliance officer, nodal officer and grievance officer by social media platforms with over 50 lakh users. All the three personnel have to be residents in India. While the rules came into effect on May 26, Twitter is yet to adhere to the social media guidelines, despite repeated reminders from the government.
Vaishnaw said he 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, Vaishnaw, while speaking in the Rajya Sabha, had raised the issue of resignation of Karnataka-based Rashmi Samant from the position of Oxford Student Union president in the UK, alleging that she was cyber bullied. Samant, the first Indian woman to be elected the president of Oxford Student Union (SU), was forced to resign amid controversy over some of her past social media posts earlier this year.
With PTI inputs
