Guwahati: Twitter on Thursday informed the Delhi High Court that it will take another eight weeks to appoint a resident grievance officer (RGO) in compliance with the new IT Rules. In an affidavit in the Delhi HC clarifying their stand on the issue of compliance under the new IT Rules, Twitter said it was in the process of setting up a liaison office in India.
The Delhi High Court had on Tuesday directed Twitter to inform it by July 8 as to when it will appoint a resident grievance officer (RGO) in compliance with the new IT Rules after the microblogging platform submitted that it was in the process of doing so.
In its reply to Delhi High Court, Twitter said, “The company will take 8 weeks to comply with the appointment of the resident grievance redressal officer. The company is also in the process of setting up a liaison office in India. The liaison office in India will be the permanent physical contact address for all communication under the new IT Rules.”
Twitter also mentioned that the first compliance report under the new IT Rules can be expected by July 11. “Twitter is engaged in performing a commercial activity and the contract between the user and Twitter is towards the advancement of the commercial agenda of the company.”
During the hearing on Tuesday, Justice Rekha Palli took exception to the fact the court was not informed that the earlier appointment of the RGO was only on an interim basis and he had already resigned.
The Delhi High Court also pointed out that only an interim RGO was appointed by Twitter and a wrong impression was given to the court on May 31 as it was not informed that the appointment was on an interim basis.
“If he went away on June 21, the least Twitter could do was to appoint another officer in these 15 days since you knew that this matter was coming up for hearing on July 6. We are concerned with the issue of compliance. How long does your process take? If Twitter thinks it can take as long as it wants in my country, I will not allow that,” the judge said.
Twitter told the Delhi High Court on Tuesday that it has not yet complied with the Centre’s new Information Technology rules. However, the social media giant added that it is currently in the process of doing so.
During a public interest litigation hearing, the high court asked if Twitter was in defiance of the new rules. As the Centre answered in the affirmation, Twitter, too, agreed that they had not complied with the rules “as of today”.
