Complying with the Indian government’s latest mandatory rules for social media sites, Twitter took the first step and appointed an interim grievance redressal officer for the country. While the name of the new post holder has been mentioned on its official website, there has been no update over the appointment of two other roles- compliance officer and nodal officer- that were also asked by the Centre. The microblogging platform’s spokesperson refused to comment on the matter.
However, Twitter had informed the Delhi High Court regarding the appointment of the IGRO on May 31st. The person who filled this position is Dharmendra Chatur. He is a partner of the law firm that Twitter had hired for representing it at the High Court.
Previously, the Centre had told social media platforms to refrain from appointing outsiders in statutory positions. The recent appointment hasn’t yet received any reaction from the government.
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After the High Court received a petition pertaining to Twitter’s alleged act of not complying with the compulsory rules set with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 that got implemented in May, the court sent a notice to the social media giant on Monday.
PTI reported that Twitter told the court it has appointed a Resident Grievance Officer. However, the Centre refused to accept the claim and disputed it.
“As we have stated earlier, Twitter strives to comply with applicable laws in India. We continue to be strictly guided by principles of transparency, a commitment to empowering every voice on the service, and protecting freedom of expression and privacy under the Indian law,” a spokesperson said.
The microblogging platform shared its concern after the new rules were announced as it would threaten its users’ freedom of expression, it said.
“Concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and potential threat to freedom of expression for people we serve. We have concerns with regards to intimidation police’s tactics in response to enforcement of global Terms of Service and core elements of the new IT Rules,” another spokesperson said.
This concern was met with the Centre’s sharp response as the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) told Twitter to “stop beating around the bush” and “comply with the laws of the land”.
As per the latest set of rules imposed by the government, complaint resolution, monitoring of objectionable content, compliance report and removal of objectionable content become a part of the deeds social media sites have to work on. To be able to achieve this, it has told OTT platforms to appoint Indian compliance officials.
However, the Centre said that these social media giants are insisting to get approvals from their US headquarters first and hence creating roadblocks for the ministry.
