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Need eight weeks time to appoint grievance redressal officers: Twitter tells Delhi High Court

On Tuesday, the Delhi High Court expressed its displeasure at Twitter for not implementing IT Ministry Guidelines by not appointing Grievance Officer and opined that Twitter was in clear violation of IT Rules 2021 and had asked it to respond by July 8.

Twitter Inc on Thursday told Delhi High Court that it needs eight weeks time to appoint regular resident grievance redressal officers under the IT Rules. The reply has been filed in a pending plea by Amit Acharya, the petitioner, who contended that the three-month period got over on May 25, 2021, but to date, no resident grievance officer has been appointed by Twitter to deal with complaints regarding tweets on its platform.

In its affidavit, Twitter Inc said that it has appointed a resident of India as its interim Chief Compliance Officer (“Interim CCO”) effective 6th July 2021. Twitter has engaged the services of the Interim CCO as a contingent worker via a third-party contractor. Twitter has also addressed a communication to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Twitter has posted publicly a job announcement for a Chief Compliance Officer as a direct employee and is accepting applications at this time. “Twitter will endeavor in good faith to make an offer of employment to a qualified candidate to fill this position within 8 weeks.”

 “Twitter had appointed Mr. Dharmendra Chatur as an interim Nodal Contact Person. Mr. Chatur withdrew from that position on 21st June 2021. Twitter will endeavor in good faith to make an offer to fill this position by a qualified candidate who is a resident of India, on an interim basis, within 2 weeks”, said the affidavit.

Twitter’s reply filed through Advocate Saransh Jain further informed the Court that it is in the process of making an offer of appointment to a resident of India as its interim Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) and expects to do so on or before 11th July 2021. Twitter intends to engage the services of the interim RGO as a contingent worker via a third-party contractor. The details of this appointment will be updated on our Help Page as soon as possible.

The social media giant underlined: “While Twitter is striving to comply with the 2021 Rules, Twitter reserves its right to challenge the legality, validity, & vires of the Rules, and Twitter’s submissions regarding compliance are filed without prejudice to its right to challenge the Rules.”

Earlier, Twitter Inc has informed the Delhi High Court that it is in the final stages of appointing a resident grievance officer for India. In its affidavit, Twitter Inc said the grievance of the petitioner was received and acknowledged by the answering respondent/ Twitter Inc within 24 hours on May 26, 2021. 

On July 6, the Delhi High Court has expressed its displeasure over Twitter Inc. for the non-implementation of IT Ministry Guidelines by not appointing the “Grievance Officer” while it opined Twitter is in clear violation of IT Rules 2021 and had asked it to respond by July 8. 

MeitY, through its reply on July 5, told the court that initially Twitter appointed the interim Resident Grievance Officer and the interim Nodal Contact Person. Later, Twitter informed that the said interim Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Officer have withdrawn/resigned from their positions. In the interim, the grievances from India are being handled by personnel of Twitter inc. situated in the United States of America which amounts to non-compliance with the IT Rules 2021.

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In his plea, filed through advocate Akash Vajpai and Manish Kumar, Acharya said he came to know about the alleged non-compliance when he tried to lodge a complaint against a couple of tweets.

Under the new digital rules, social media companies like Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter have been asked to identify within 36 hours the originator of a flagged message as well as to conduct additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person, and resident grievance officer.

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