In 2021, Twitter executives in India faced arrest over posts that the government wanted removed from the site.
And on Saturday, Pavel Durov, who founded the online communications tool Telegram, was arrested.
For years, internet company executives rarely faced personal liability in Western democracies for what took place on their platforms. But as law enforcement agencies, regulators and policymakers ramp up scrutiny of online platforms and exchanges, they are increasingly considering when to hold company leaders directly responsible.
And legally, the bar is high in the United States and Europe to prosecute individuals for activities at their companies, especially with US laws like Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects internet platforms from being responsible for harmful speech.
In China, Russia and other authoritarian countries, US tech firms have sometimes pulled out their employees to prevent them from being arrested. The concern is employees will be used as leverage to force firs to do things like remove content unfavourable to the government.
That’s difficult to demonstrate, since TikTok, YouTube, Snap and Meta have worked to take down illegal content to law enforcement officials, so their executives can argue they tried to do the right thing. “Knowledge is the key issue here,” said Ms. Keller, a former lawyer for Google. “It’s the usual trigger for anyone losing immunity.”
©2024 The New York Times
First Published: Aug 28 2024 | 11:10 PM IST