Made permanent appointments in compliance with IT rules: Twitter tells HC

Twitter has made permanent appointments for the roles of chief compliance officer resident grievance officer and a nodal contact person, as part of the requirements of the new social media Rules, the company told the Delhi High Court on Friday.

The matter has been adjourned to August 10.

The lawyer appearing for Twitter told the Court that the company has notarised the affidavit on August 5, in the US. 

The new appointees are employees of Twitter Inc and not the India entity of the microblogging platform, a person familiar with the details said.

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

The nodal contact person, as per reports, is an ex-Bytedance employee Shahin Kamath. 

Twitter earlier named Vinay Prakash as it’s resident grievance officer in India, who 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, on July 11. 

The Delhi High Court told Twitter earlier 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 non-compliance had led to Twitter India head being named in many police complaints related to content and at least one court case.

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