On 25 February, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 were notified, seeking to regulate social media intermediaries and to tackle misuse of social media. However, Prasad and his Ministry were soon drawn into a bitter spat with Big Tech companies, especially Twitter, over the implementation of these local laws. The tussle escalated as the government removed Twitter's legal protection in India as an "intermediary" on June 16 over its failure to comply with the new IT rules, while Twitter temporarily locked Prasad's official handle on its platform due to a copyright violation.
