Twitter India names Vinay Prakash as its grievance officer for India

The executive will be based in Bengaluru, says company as it posts data about complaints it had received

After nearly two months and much back and forth with the Centre, Twitter India has named Vinay Prakash as its resident grievance officer. Prakash will be based in Bengaluru.

Twitter India also published its transparency report in accordance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules (or IT Rules) 2021.

The microblogging platform has been in the eye of a storm over its non-compliance with the new IT Rules in India. The Rules mandate, among other requirements, the appointment of three key personnel — chief compliance officer, nodal officer and grievance officer — by social media platforms with over 5 million users. 

All the three have to be residents of India.

Twitter has also specified the name of the grievance officer for Twitter Inc. The person to contact for Twitter Inc is Jeremy Kessel, based in San Francisco, California.

Content regulation comes under ambit of Twitter Inc while Twitter India provides support services for promoting and marketing Twitter in India.

Twitter had previously named Dharmendra Chatur as interim grievance officer, but he exited the role in June end.

These issues have left the government displeased with the microblogging platform, asking it to comply with the new IT Rules at the earliest. 

The Delhi High Court told Twitter on Thursday that it would not protect the social media platform against legal proceedings if it does not comply with the social media rules introduced by the Centre.

The Centre told the high court, in an affidavit earlier, that the microblogging platform did not comply with the IT Rules. Therefore, it lost its safe harbour protection provided to intermediaries under Section 79(1) of the IT Act, 2000.