Manish Maheshwari has been a busy man these past few weeks. The managing director of Twitter in India has been named in at least three police complaints, ranging from showing an incorrect map of India to a video of alleged communal violence going viral, one of which even led to him filing a caveat in the Supreme Court.

       How did the largely media-shy Maheshwari get to this situation? The cases mostly concern Twitter’s non-compliance with India’s new rules for intermediaries. Coupled with a tussle in January that involved Twitter pushing back against Indian ...