Twitter Inc. will now be held responsible for content posted by users in India after a court ruled that the country failed to comply with the country’s new information technology law.

The Delhi High Court said in a legal filing published on July 5 that now the government will be “free to take any action” against Twitter for content it deems harmful. In May, India’s new IT laws went into effect, stipulating that social media companies must do as told when asked to remove certain posts or hand over details about accounts.

Shortly after, a spat developed between Twitter and the Indian government over Twitter allegedly mislabeling a post from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. That post was labeled as being “manipulated media” by Twitter, which resulted in the police turning up at Twitter’s Indian office.

Twitter stuck by its guns and didn’t change the message or take the related content down, much of it posted by politicians, journalists and activists, although at times Twitter has censored certain tweets at the behest of the government. Nonetheless, the company said such bullying was a threat to freedom of speech, adding it was concerned “in regards to the use of intimidation tactics by the police in response to enforcement of our global terms of service, as well as with core elements of the new IT rules.”

Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad doesn’t see it that way, criticizing Twitter for breaking the laws of the country. Twitter was later told it had to install a contact person who could be contacted 24/7, as well as create positions for a chief compliance officer and a grievance officer. It seems Twitter did that at first, but the people resigned, which resulted in the loss of liability protection.

The Indian government has argued that Twitter cannot expect to have such protection under the U.S. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in India. “Some of them say we are bound by American laws,” Prasad said last week. “You operate in India, make good money, but you will take the position that you’ll be governed by American laws. This is plainly not acceptable.”

It remains to be seen what will happen next. Twitter said in May that it was concerned over arrests of its executive staff in India, although the company stated that it would make an effort to adhere to the country’s Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code. Things have now changed, putting Twitter and its almost 100 million Twitter Indian users in a difficult position.

Twitter has yet to comment on the latest development.

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