In final stages of appointing resident grievance officer: Twitter tells Delhi HC

Twitter is in the final stages of hiring a full-time resident grievance officer for India as per the provisions of the new IT rules, the micro-blogging platform told Delhi High Court in an affidavit on Saturday.

The US-based company filed the affidavit in response to a notice issued by the court over its non-compliance with the new IT rules. The company said it has appointed an interim grievance officer and complaints regarding tweets are being handled by the officer, India Today reported.

Earlier, Twitter's interim resident grievance officer for India, Dharmendra Chatur, had stepped down, leaving the company without a grievance official as mandated by the new IT rules to address complaints from Indian subscribers.

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The company informed the court that as per the IT Rules, only the 'victim' can file complaint with the grievance officer. However, the petitioner had raised objections to tweets they were not personally affected by and therefore cannot claim to be a 'victim'.

After Chatur's resignation, Twitter had named California-based Jeremy Kessel as India's grievance redressal officer on the platform's website -- although the appointment does not meet the requirements of new IT rules that clearly mandate key officers, including the grievance officer, to be resident in India.

Twitter has been involved in a standoff with the government over the new IT rules which came into effect from February 25. Social media companies, including Twitter, had time till May 25 to comply with the new rules.

Notably, Twitter has lost its legal shield as an intermediary in India, becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

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