Twitter in final stages of appointing a resident grievance officer

In a reply submitted to the Delhi High Court, microblogging site Twitter informed that it is in the final stages of appointing a resident grievance officer in India. Even before steps were taken to formalize the appointment of a grievance officer in India, Dharmendra Chatur, the interim grievance officer withdrew his candidature on June 21, the social networking service added. Appointing a resident grievance officer is a mandate for social media platforms in India under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

"The answering respondent is in the final stages of appointing a replacement while in the meanwhile the grievances of the Indian users are being addressed by the grievance officer," Twitter said.

Following Chatur's resignation, Twitter appointed California-based Jeremy Kessel as the new grievance officer for India. However, Kessel's appointment was not in line with the new IT rules as they mandate all nodal officers to be from India. Following a complaint by practising advocate Amit Acharya against Twitter in the Delhi HC on May 28, a bench of Justice Rekha Palli issued a notice to the microblogging platform on May 31 and gave it three weeks to file a response. The matter was posted for hearing on July 6.

Acharya moved the plea through Akash Vajpai and urged the HC to issue directives to the Centre to urge Twitter India and Twitter Inc to appoint a resident grievance officer under Rule 4 of the new IT rules without delay. The plea further noted that Twitter is a "Significant Social Media Intermediary" (SSMI) as per the IT Rules and must comply with the statutory duties imposed as per the rules.

The plea contended that in a nutshell, every significant social media intermediary has the responsibility of appointing not only a resident grievance officer who will act as a single-point authority for receiving and disposing of complaints within a fixed time, but someone will also receive and acknowledge any order, notice and direction issued by the competent authorities.