New IT Rules: Twitter had sought eight weeks to appoint a grievance officer in India. (Representational)
Twitter India has appointed an Indian national as its officer for grievances redressal required under the new digital rules of the country. On its website, Twitter named Vinay Prakash as its Resident Grievance officer and provided an email contact id. The appointment comes amid a huge stand-off with the government as the new rules came into effect.
“In compliance with Rule 4(1)(d) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, we have published our inaugural report on July 11, 2021 for the reporting period from May 26, 2021 through to June 25, 2021,” the social media giant also said in its transparency centre page.
Earlier this month, Twitter appointed an interim chief compliance officer and said it would soon designate two other executives temporarily to comply with the new IT rules. It also sought eight weeks from the Delhi High Court to appoint a grievance officer in the country and said it would make its first compliance report public by July 11.
But the Court, which was hearing the case on Thursday, said Twitter will not enjoy legal protection if it does not follow India's new information technology rules.
The court asked Twitter to file an affidavit declaring these details within two weeks and also asked all interim officers to file affidavits, stating they would take responsibility for the duties tasked to them.
The social media giant has already been named in four cases in various states.
In June, cases were filed against Twitter in Ghaziabad and Madhya Pradesh and Delhi in connection with tweets on the alleged assault on a Muslim man and the issue of child pornography.
Twitter had lost legal protection from prosecution from users' posts after its failure to comply with new digital rules, including appointment of Indian officials for the grievances and redressal system.
The social media giant had initially clashed with the government over the new IT rules, which it said were against the Constitution.
The row intensified after it tagged tweets by BJP leaders on an alleged "Congress toolkit" as "manipulated media".