Twitter tells Court it needs 8 weeks to appoint Grievance Officer

After the Delhi High Court pulled up Twitter for failing to appoint resident grievance officer (RGO), the microblogging site sought time of eight weeks to appoint a grievance officer.   This comes in the wake of interim Nodal Contact Officer and Resident Grievance Officer Dharmendra Chatur’s resignation on June 21.

Twitter told the Delhi HC on Thursday that it will, in good faith, make an offer of employment to a qualified candidate to fill chief compliance officer position within eight weeks. Twitter informed the court that it has appointed a resident of India as its interim chief compliance officer, effective 6th July. Twitter added that a new liaison office will serve as its permanent physical contact address. Moreover, it disclosed that Twitter’s first compliance report covering the May 26-June 25 period will be filed by July 11. At the same time, it stressed, “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”. A bench of Justice Rekha Palli told Twitter’s counsel, “Come up with a clear response, otherwise you will be in trouble”, and sought information on Twitter’s 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 hearing.