[BREAKING] Taking steps to appoint regular Grievance Redressal Officer, Chief Compliance Officer within 8 weeks: Twitter to Delhi High Court

Twitter Inc today told Delhi High Court that it is taking steps to appoint a regular employee as its Resident Grievance Officer for India within eight weeks (Amit Acharya v. Union of India and Ors.).Further, Twitter has stated that steps are also being taken to appoint a regular Chief Compliance Officer and a regular Nodal Contact Person within eight weeks. .The submission was made in a reply filed before the Court days after Justice Rekha Palli expressed disapproval over the delay in appointing a regular Resident Grievance Officer after its earlier interim officer, Dharmendra Chatur, withdrew from the post. ."Twitter has posted publicly a job announcement for a Resident Grievance Officer as a direct employee and is accepting applications at this time. Twitter will endeavor in good faith to make an offer of employment to a qualified individual to fill this position within 8 weeks", states the reply filed by Twitter. .In the meantime, the duties of the Resident Grievance Officer will be performed by another Grievance Officer..Twitter has also said that it is in the process of making an offer of appointment to a resident of India as its interim Resident Grievance Officer, and expects to do so on or before July 11, 2021. ."Twitter intends to engage the services of the interim RGO as a contingent worker via a third party contractor. The details of this appointment will be updated on our Help Page as soon as possible", Twitter said. .Twitter has added that it reserves the right to challenge the validity of the IT Rules, 2021."While Twitter is striving to comply with the 2021 Rules, Twitter reserves its right to challenge the legality, validity, and vires of the Rules, and Twitter’s submissions regarding compliance are filed without prejudice to its right to challenge the Rules", the reply stated. .The reply has been made in response to a petition by one Amit Acharya, who sought action against Twitter users for their tweets on a video from Ghaziabad showing a Muslim man being assaulted. The petition had sought a direction to Twitter to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer as required under Rule 4 of the IT Rules, 2021..Will not let Twitter take as long it wants in our country: Delhi High Court in plea to direct social media giant to comply with IT Rules, 2021.The case is slated to be taken up for further hearing later today..Other highlights of the reply.Twitter has appointed a resident of India as its interim Chief Compliance Officer effective July 6, 2021. Twitter has posted publicly a job announcement for a Chief Compliance Officer as a direct employee and is accepting applications. Twitter is taking steps to appoint a qualified candidate as a refular Chief Compliance Officer within eight weeks.Since Dharmendra Chatur withdrew from this position as well on June 21, 2021, Twitter is taking steps to appoint an interim Nodal Contact Person within two weeks. Steps are being taken to appoint a qualified person, who is a resident of India, as a regular Nodal contact person within eight weeks. .The appointments are being made in compliance with Rules 4(1)(a), 4(1)(b) and 4(1)(c) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021).