The Centre has notified the Delhi court that Twitter has appointed personnel in compliance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, which were introduced in February 2021.
“Twitter has provided the names of the said appointed personnel and their respective positions also. The said affidavit (of Twitter) mentions their employment start date as August 4, 2021. Twitter has further enclosed their employment contracts along with the said affidavit as proof of such appointments” the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) stated in an affidavit submitted to Delhi High Court in response to Twitter’s affidavit.
The Centre’s affidavit further asserted that the IT Rules, 2021 is “a law of the land” and reiterated that Twitter must comply with the rules “in its entirety” and failing to do so would make the social media platform liable to prosecution in case content of unlawful nature is posted by its users.
The microblogging platform had stated in an affidavit submitted before the Delhi High Court on September 22 that it has appointed three-tier grievance redressal officers in accordance with the IT Rules issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, mentioning that it had appointed Vinay Prakash, an Indian resident, as the RGO and CCO on August 4. It further added that Shahin Komath had been employed as the NCO.
Justice Rekha Palli, who was in charge of hearing the petition filed by lawyer Amit Acharya claiming non-compliance of IT rules by Twitter earlier this year, is set to further hear the matter on October 5.