Twitter is working on offering its user policy in Indian languages like Hindi and Urdu to enhance the ‘informed’ usage of their website among non-English speaking populations. Reading user guidelines, which currently are available in English, allows users to understand how content can be shared on the website.
Change will help users
Twitter General Counsel Vijaya Gadde told PTI, “India is an important country for us,” adding that the company is working on translating the policies into languages like Hindi and Urdu. At present, Twitter’s term and conditions are available in German, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Korean.
Twitter believe that the change will be helpful for users to understand the policies better and then decide upon content to post, said Gadde. Users can already post tweets in several Indian languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Sanskrit, Gurumukhi, Gujrati, Bengali, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu and Sindhi.
According to Gadde, in India, Twitter is concerned about user safety and educating users on how they can “leverage Twitter as a medium to discover and receive content from sources that interest them and share content with others.”
India an important market for Twitter
Twitter did not reveal the size of its user base in the country, and has not detailed regarding how many users enjoy the service in regional/vernacular languages, but the firm has mentioned that India is among its fastest growing markets.
Gadde said that the company is getting various content removal requests from Indian authorities on the basis of national security, abuse, hate speech and copyright infringement. In its transparency report for July through December 2014, the micro-blogging firm noted that it received 41 account information requests from the Indian government, and information was provided in 22% cases. In the same period, the company received one removal request from the court and 14 from government agencies.
Separately, ahead of the company’s first quarter earnings on Tuesday, SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst Bob Peck lowered the rating on the stock to Neutral from Buy, and also slashed the price target to $50 from a previous $58. “We think the negative risks create enough concern and likely result in a range-bound stock in the near term,” Peck wrote.
