Twitter ‘prima facie’ in compliance with new IT rules, Centre tells Delhi HC

The Centre told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that Twitter was prima facie in compliance with the new Information Technology Rules by appointing a Chief Compliance Officer CCO Resident Grievance Officer RGO and Nodal Contact Person on permanent basisJustice Rekha Palli who was hearing a petition alleging noncompliance of IT Rules by the USbased microblogging site sought an affidavit from the Centre to bring its stand on record within two weeksldquoChief Compliance Officer Nodal Contact Person NCP and Resident Grievance Officer have been appointed in compliance with the law Thats the email that Ive received from the instructing authority Its better to have an affidavitrdquo Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma saidThe court said that Twitters affidavit on its compliance with IT Rules was ldquofinally on recordrdquoSenior advocate Sajan Poovayya representing Twitter iterated that the company has appointed permanent officials for the posts of CCO RGO and NCPPoovayya said the appointed persons will work on a fulltime basis and are fully capable of performing the functions in terms of the lawldquoCourt gave us a long rope Finally we have rectified the situation We have permanent people occupying the positionrdquo Poovayya submittedOn July 28 the court had expressed displeasure over Twitter appointing a contingent worker as CCO and said that the social media platform was in noncompliance with the new IT RulesldquoIm giving you a long rope but dont expect the court to do it on and onrdquo the court had saidCentre had also claimed that Twitter was acting in ldquoabject noncompliance of the rulesrdquoThe Centre said in its affidavit that Twitter failed to comply with Indias new IT Rules which could lead to its losing immunity conferred under the IT ActThe court had earlier granted time to Twitter to file an affidavit to show compliance with the IT RulesPetitionerlawyer Amit Acharya represented by senior advocate G Tushar Rao claimed that he came to know about the alleged noncompliance of IT Rules by Twitter when he tried to lodge a complaint against a couple of tweetsThe Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code Rules 2021 seek to regulate dissemination and publication of content in cyber space including social media platforms and were notified in February by the central governmentThe matter would be heard next on October 5This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever