Amid a huge standoff with the government, Twitter has finally appointed an Indian National as its officer for grievances redressal required under the new digital rules of the country. In accordance with new regulations, Twitter appointed Vinay Prakash as its resident grievance officer and provided an email contact id on its website.
Twitter had initially clashed with the government over the new IT rules, which it said were against the Constitution. The row intensified when it tagged tweets by BJP leaders on an alleged Congress toolkit as manipulated media.
The social media giant in its transparency centre page said that 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.
Earlier, it had appointed an interim chief compliance officer and had said it would soon designate two other executives temporarily to comply with the new IT rules. In response to a petition challenging non-compliance of the Centre’s new IT Rules, it had sought eight weeks from the Delhi High Court to appoint a grievance officer and had said it will make its first compliance report to the public by July 11.
However, the Court had said Twitter will not enjoy legal protection if it does not follow India’s new information technology rules. The court has asked the social media giant 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.
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Meanwhile, the social media giant has been facing legal trouble as four cases in various states has been filed against it in connection with tweets on the alleged assault on a Muslim man, on the issue of child pornography, and others.
In failure to comply with new digital rules including the appointment of Indian officials for the grievances and redressal system before the given deadline, Twitter had lost legal protection from prosecution from users’ posts after its failure to comply with new digital rules.