Days after the Indian government issued a final notice to Twitter seeking compliance under the country’s new IT rules, the social media giant has written to the government saying they are in the advanced stages of finalising the appointment to the role of the Chief Compliance Officer.
In the letter written to the Indian government, Twitter has announced that they would be appointing 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.
Twitter added that they will provide additional details with respect to new IT rules in a week.
Earlier, Twitter had opposed to complying with the new digital rules notified by the government of India. Even though other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp had complied with the new laws, Twitter had last month asked the government for an additional three months for the same.
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, which came into effect from May 25, mandates the social media intermediaries with more than 5 million users and providing messaging services to identify the first originator of problematic content that may harm the country’s interests. The companies should also appoint an Indian grievance officer to deal with the complaints.
As Twitter failed to comply, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had warned the social media giant that such non-compliance with India’s new IT rules would lead to unintended consequences, including Twitter losing exemption from liability as intermediary available under Section 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2020. The centre had sent three notices demanding Twitter to respect Indian laws.
Twitter to appoint Chief Compliance officer soon
After several warnings from the centre, Twitter seems to have fallen in line as they have now started to comply with India’s new IT rules.
“We are in advance 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,” Twitter wrote to Centre, according to sources.
“In order to comply with underlying intention behind guidelines, we’ve appointed Nodal Contact Person and Resident Grievance Officer on contractual basis as we recruit to fill position on permanent basis,” Twitter wrote in its response to the government regarding compliance with IT rules.
Social media platform Twitter has also written to the government that it is in the advanced stages of finalising the chief compliance officer as per the new IT rules and sought another week to furnish additional details regarding the same. In its reply to the Ministry of Electronics and IT on June 7, Twitter said that it is making all efforts to comply with the new guidelines but has been unable to do so because of the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.