Twitter begins partial compliance with India's new IT rules, announces two appointments

Social Media giant Twitter has announced the appointment of a Nodal Contact Person and a Resident Grievance Officer, in line with India's new Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 Guidelines. In a statement issued on Wednesday, Twitter said that it was making all efforts to comply with India's new IT rules and claimed that the global impact of COVID-19 had made it difficult for it to comply with the new guidelines within the stipulated time frame. 

Twitter appoints new officers, begins complying with India's new IT rules

Twitter announced the appointment of a Nodal Contact Person (NCP) and a Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) on a contractual basis while stating that it was hiring to fill the positions on a permanent basis. Further, Twitter informed that it was in the advanced stages of finalising the appointment of a Chief Compliance Officer and said that it would provide additional details on the same to the Centre within a week.

The new appointments from Twitter came two days after it sought more time to comply with the new IT rules following a warning from the Centre. A Twitter spokesperson had earlier reiterated that the microblogging site has been and remains deeply committed to India, and serving the vital public conversation taking place on the service. In a communication addressed to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the microblogging site had made said that it intends to comply with the rules but needs more time due to the pandemic situation in India.

MeitY issues 'final notice' to Twitter India to comply with new IT rules

Last Saturday, the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) had pulled up Twitter over non-compliance with its IT rules and had sought clarification. In the letter addressed to the social media giant, the ministry had pointed that Twitter has not informed about its Chief Compliance Officer and also stated that the Resident Grievance Officer and Nodal Contact Person nominated by Twitter is not an employee of Twitter Inc and the company's official address is that of a law firm in India, which is also not as per the Rules. Having made the points, it warned that noncompliance will lead to unintended consequences including Twitter losing exemption from liability as an intermediary. 

Centre's new IT rules 2021 for social media

• Social media intermediaries shall appoint a Grievance Officer to deal with complaints and share the name and contact details of such officers. The officer should acknowledge the complaint received within 24 hours and resolve the issue within 15 days.
• Intermediaries should remove or disable, within 24 hours of the complaint received, content that displays partial or full nudity, sexual act, morphed images, etc.
• Intermediaries have to appoint a Chief Compliance Officer, a Nodal Contact Person and a Resident Grievance Officer, and all these officers should be Indian residents.
• social media intermediaries offering messaging services must help law enforcement agencies identify and track the first originator of any contentious or problematic information.
• An intermediary upon receiving actual knowledge in the form of an order by a court or being notified by the appropriate govt. or its agencies through an authorized officer should not host or publish any information which is prohibited under any law in relation to the interest of the sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations with foreign countries, etc.
• If failed to comply, safe harbours which offer immunity to intermediaries from criminal liability would not apply to them.