Does Section 66A of the Information Technology Act apply to Tweets?
The emphasis in the Post Office Act is on "transmission by post" of anything forbidden. Therefore, it follows that even Section 66A, which is the “e-equivalent” of Section 20 of the Post Office Act, also frowns upon use of the medium as a "communication medium", and not as a means of "simple publication."
As regards the application of Section 66A to tweets, to my mind, Twitter as a micro-blogging site is a platform for communication through publication, as opposed to communication by “sending messages”.
It must be borne that the purpose of the provision is to deter and frown upon messages sent via emails/SMS, which though amount to communication, do not necessarily translate to publication always (unless it is a group message). Even when offensive or insulting information is sent as a group message via emails or group texts, the provision’s scope is limited to the act of “sending messages”, with the issue of defamation being covered by Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.
Therefore, I don’t think Section 66A applies to tweets or status updates on Facebook.
