Twitter will be in trouble if it fails to comply with India rules: Delhi HC

In a major setback for Twitter in India the Delhi High Court on Tuesday pulled up the microblogging site for failing to appoint resident grievance officer RGO saying How long will your process take place This cannot be allowed even as the court free pass to the central government to act against the social media firmA bench of Justice Rekha Palli told Twitters counsel Come up with a clear response otherwise you will be in trouble and sought information on Twitters compliance with other provisions of the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules 2021 IT Rules 2021 by the next date of hearingThe high court told central government counsel We are not stopping you from taking action court has not granted any protection to Twitter If they are in violation you know what to doThe Centre submitted that Twitter India is in clear violation of IT Rules2021The Centre had informed the Delhi High Court that Twitter has failed to comply with the IT Rules 2021 as on July 1 on four countsChief compliance officer not being appointedThe position of the resident grievance officer being vacantThe position of the nodal contact person even on an interim basis being vacant andThe physical contact address which was shown to be there on May 29 was not available on Twitters websiteThe central government counsel submitted before the court that Twitter was given threemonth window to comply with IT Rules but they did notThe counsel added that they are most welcome to do business in India but they have to complyThe bench said I am not giving them any protection I have already made it clear that they have to complySenior Advocate Sajan Poovayya representing Twitter India submitted that an interim grievance officer was appointed but he had withdrawn his candidature on June 21 The bench responded that after June 21 and till July 6 the least it could have done was appoint another personHow long does your process take If Twitter thinks it can take as long it wants in our country I will not allow that said the benchPoovayya sought time to seek instructions on the new appointment which was allowed by the court and it passed over the matter Later Poovayya submitted that he needs more time to obtain detailed instructions from San Franciscobased TwitterThe bench observed that these rules are binding but Twitter has not appointed anyone till now The court posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday and asked Twitter to inform by when it will appoint an RGO and other officialsOn May 31 the Delhi High Court had issued a notice to the microblogging platform on a plea by advocate Amit AcharyaThe plea had urged the high court to issue directions to the Centre to pass necessary instructions to Twitter India and Twitter Inc to appoint a resident grievance officer under Rule 4 of the Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code Rules 2021 without any delayThe plea had contended that in a nutshell every significant social media intermediary has the responsibility of appointing not only a resident grievance officer who will act as a singlepoint authority for receiving and disposing of complaints within a fixed time but someone should also receive and acknowledge any order notice and direction issued by the competent authoritiesAlso read Twitter Inc failed to comply with new IT Rules Centre tells HCThis 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