Dharmendra Chatur, appointed by Twitter as its interim grievance officer as per the requirement of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, has quit the job. The development leaves the social media platform without a grievance officer.
As per Economic Times, Dharmendra Chatur declined a comment on the matter. Twitter has not offered a statement either. Chatur has deleted his Twitter account as well. Recently, Dharmendra Chatur was summoned by the UP Police along with Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari in connection with a manipulated video that peddled a fake hate crime.
The development comes days after IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s Twitter account was locked for allegedly violating USA’s Copyright Act.
Twitter Inc. is in the middle of a tussle with the Indian government over the new IT rules. Ever since the Indian government enforced the new rules, the micro-blogging site has failed to comply with the Indian laws and has been delaying the compliance.
As Twitter did not comply with the rules, the Indian government sent a barrage of notices to the tech giant to follow the Indian laws. As usual, Twitter asked for more time to follow the Indian laws. With Twitter failing to follow the rules, the Indian government promptly withdrew its intermediary status for not complying with the new Information Technology Rules, which came into force on May 26.
In addition to the non-compliance, the Uttar Pradesh Government has initiated action against Twitter India for failing to take down tweets that spread misinformation about a crime in the state. An FIR has been lodged against the social media platform in connection with the Loni incident after Twitter failed to flag the fake news put out by alleged fact-checkers.
