The Centre on Friday informed the Delhi High Court that microblogging site Twitter is in compliance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

The Centre submitted an affidavit before the Single Judge Bench of Justice Rekha Palli on a petition filed by a practising advocate, against non-compliance by Twitter Inc with the IT Rules, 2021.

The development came after the Union government, on the last date of hearing on August 10, was granted time to file a response in relation to Twitter’s affidavit stating that Twitter Inc has made permanent appointments to the post of Chief Compliance Officer, Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person, as mandated by the IT Rules 2021.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), in the affidavit, submitted, “Twitter has appointed the personnel in compliance to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.”

The Centre drew the attention of Court to the fact that Twitter is also responsible to publish a physical contact address in India on its public platforms, for the purpose of receiving communications addressed to it; as also to enable a mechanism that could keep a track of the status of every complaint or grievance made to it. In addition, Twitter is also responsible to submit compliance reports as mandated in IT Rules, 2021, added the Union government.

As per the affidavit,

“The IT Rules, 2021 is a law of the land. Twitter is mandatorily required to comply with the IT Rules 2021 in its entirety. Any non-compliance amounts to a breach of the provisions of the IT Rules, 2021 thereby leading to Twitter losing its immunity conferred under section 79(1) of the IT Act, 2000………… Further, as per rule 7, failure to observe the IT Rules, 2021 will result in the non-applicability of Section 79(1) of the IT Act, 2000 to such an intermediary and the intermediary shall become liable for any punishment under any law for the time being in force in respect of the offending content.”

A petition has been filed by one Amit Acharya, through Advocates Akash Vajpai and Manish Kumar alleging that Twitter has not complied with the Centre’s IT Rules to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer; and sought directions to the social media platform to comply with the same, without any delay.

Also Read: Delhi government informs Delhi High Court: Done away with cap on non-PDS beneficiaries for dry ration

The plea pointed out that the IT Rules came into effect from February 25 this year, wherein the Centre granted three months to every social media intermediary, including Twitter, to comply with them. In his plea, 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 conduct additional due diligence, including the appointment of a Chief Compliance Officer, Nodal Contact Person and Resident Grievance Officer.

On the last date of hearing, Twitter acknowledged that it has appointed Chief Compliance Officer, Nodal Contact Person, and Resident Grievance Officer with permanent status and not as “contingent workers”, in lieu of the objection raised by the Court on ‘contingent’ appointments made earlier by Twitter. The matter is fixed for next hearing on October 8.

Twitter Inc has informed the Delhi High Court that it is in the final stages of appointing a resident grievance officer for India. 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 the grievance of the petitioner was received and acknowledged by the answering respondent/ Twitter Inc within 24 hours on May 26, 2021. Further, the grievance has also been disposed of within the period of 15 days on June 9 as prescribed by Rule 3(2)of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (“Intermediaries Guidelines”). The matter is listed for hearing on July 6 before the Delhi High Court. 

The affidavit further stated that, “In substantial compliance with Rules 3 (2) and Rule 4 (1)(c) of the Intermediaries Guidelines, the Answering Respondent has appointed an interim resident grievance officer, whose details were uploaded on the website of the respondent on 29.05.2021. However, even before steps could be taken to completely formalize the arrangement, the interim resident grievance officer withdrew his candidature on 21.06.2021.”

“Therefore, the answering respondent is in the final stages of appointing a replacement while in the meanwhile the grievances of Indian users are being addressed by the Grievance Officer,” the affidavit read. 

Twitter has further submitted that the present petition is not maintainable and the issue of maintainability should be decided prior to hearing the petition on merits. It also informed the Court that it is in the final stage of appointing an interim Chief Compliance Officer and the details of which has been forwarded to the Centre. Twitter Inc therefore prayed the Delhi High Court to dismissed the petition in limine as not maintainable

Twitter also claimed that the claim of the petitioner should be rendered infructuous since he hasn’t made authors of those tweets as party respondents from whom he is aggrieved of. The Delhi High Court on May 31, 2021, had issued notice to the Centre and the Twitter Inc to file its reply in a plea which raised a grievance regarding non-appointment of “Resident Grievance Officer” which is mandated to appoint under the Rules. 

The petition has been filed before the Delhi High Court alleging that Twitter has not complied with the Centre’s IT Rules to appoint a resident grievance officer, and sought directions to the social media platform to comply without any delay. Petitioner Amit Acharya stated that the Information Technology Rules came into effect from February 25 and the Centre had given three months to every social media intermediary, including Twitter, to comply with them.

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 conduct additional due diligence, including the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact person and resident grievance officer.

The petitioner has categorically mentioned two alleged and objectionable tweets i.e. The first objectionable tweet was made by one user namely Mahua Moitra having user Id @MahuaMoitra. The tweet was made on 25.05.2021. In the tweet the user had made false and frivolous allegations on Republic of India and had written the following quote:

Also Read: Madhya Pradesh High Court quashes NSA order allowing detention of businessman for 3 months

“Welcome to our Susu Potty Republic! Drink Gaumutra, smear cowdung & flush the rule of law down the toilet

@DelhiPolice issue notice to Twitter & land up in their offices for rightly calling out @BJP’s fake document as manipulated media. Go figure”

The second objectionable tweet was made by one user namely Swati Chaturvedi having user Id @bainjal. The tweet was made on 26.05.2021 at 10.33 AM. In the tweet the user had made false and frivolous allegation against former Chief Justice of India and had written the following tweet:

“If Bobde had been Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Modi would have been able to appoint his favorite Gujarat IPS, official Rakesh Asthana. What a huge difference a CJI who follows the law makes.”