The local grievance redressal officer of Twitter Dharmendra Chatur has step down from the position within weeks of being appointed. This comes amid a heated controversy going on between the microblogging site and the Centre over the new IT Rules.
The social media giant has been in violation of the new rules, now got in its global legal policy director Jeremy Kessel for the position, despite the fact that his appointment isn’t believed to be in accordance with rules, which order that the grievance redressal official ought to be based out of India. Kessel, who has been with Twitter for various years, is based out of San Francisco, however he has been given an email ID explicitly for India: grievance official in@twitter.com.
The microblogging site has denied to answer the queries on the issue. “We have no comment,” a representative for Twitter India. Twitter’s regulatory relations in India have been under intense pressure because of the organization’s hesitance to adhere to the new IT rules, declared on February 25, ordering the organization to delegate three specific officials – for grievance redressal, nodal and compliance by May 25.
The deferral in appointment of the officials has additionally seen the organization lose the desired ‘safe harbour’ insusceptibility granted under the IT Act, making it responsible for criminal and punitive action for any unlawful content posted on its platform. The issues for the platform have additionally compounded after its India MD – Manish Maheshwari – was called by the Ghaziabad police concerning a criminal case (however he got help on the matter from the Karnataka high court).
Twitter has so far been not able to make the statutory appointments, regardless of being given an grace period by the centre. While it is still not clear whether it’s appointed a nodal and a compliance official, even the appointment of Chatur had been under administrative vulnerability as he was not an immediate representative of Twitter US, but rather was an accomplice assign at a legal office addressing the organization at the Delhi high court.
As per the new rules, the key officials are needed to be on the finance of the global headquarters, and not be recruited by the Indian subsidiaries. This has been recommended as content handling, processing and moderation is a domain of the headquarters in America for the social media giants, while their subsidiaries — like India — are principally entrusted with advertising, promotional activities and marketing.
