Twitter writes to government, says appointed nodal contact person, resident grievance officer
Jun 09, 2021
New Delhi [India], June 9 : Twitter has written to the government that it is making every effort to comply with new guidelines concerning social media companies and has appointed a nodal contractual person (NCP) and Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) on contractual basis and was in advanced stages of "finalising the appointment to the role of chief compliance officer," sources said.
They said Twitter wrote that the guidelines were notified on February 25 this year and global impact of COVID-19 has "made it more difficult" for the company to make certain arrangements necessary to comply with the guidelines.
"In order to comply with the underlying intention behind guidelines, we've appointed Nodal Contact Person and Resident Grievance Officer on contractual basis as we recruit to fill the positions on a permanent basis," Twitter said, according to sources.
The company said the step is similar to other significant social media intermediaries operating in India.
"We are in advanced stages of finalising the appointment to the role of Chief Compliance Officer and we plan to provide additional details to you in the next several days, and at the latest within a week," it said, the sources added.
The microblogging and social networking company had assured the government on Monday that it is making every effort to comply with the new guidelines, and an overview of the progress has been duly shared.
A Twitter spokesperson had said that the company has been and remains deeply committed to India, and serving the vital public conversation taking place on the service and will continue its constructive dialogue with the Indian Government.
Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had last week said that it had given Twitter one last notice to comply with the new rules concerning social media companies.
The ministry said in the letter that the New Intermediary Guideline Rules have become effective from May 26.
"The provisions for significant social media intermediaries under the Rules have already come into force on May 26 2021 and it has been more than a week but Twitter has refused to comply with the provisions of these Rules. Needless to state, such non-compliance will lead to unintended consequences including Twitter losing exemption from liability as intermediary available under section 79 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000. This has clearly been provided under rule 7 of the aforesaid Rules," it said. .
