NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday took a grim view of Twitter India’s lackadaisical approach to the non-appointment of a resident grievance officer, a requirement under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021). “If Twitter thinks it can take as long it wants in our country, I will not allow that,” Justice Rekha Palli said.
“The intermediaries were given three months to comply with the rules from February 26 onwards. It has been 41 days of non-compliance by Twitter,” the Centre submitted. Senior advocate Sajjan Poovayya, appearing for Twitter said, “The appointed grievance officer resigned... We are in the process of appointing a new officer.”
However, the bench said Twitter cannot go on taking as long as it wants. The court asked the social media giant to revert on how long it will take to appoint a new grievance officer. Twitter sought a day’s time to respond to this query after which the HC slated the next hearing for Tuesday. “Twitter has given the court the wrong impression. The least you could have done after his (interim officer’s) resignation is appointing another person,” the bench said.
The high court said that no protection will be provided to Twitter and the government is free to take action against the company. Non-compliance with the IT rules has already resulted in Twitter losing the immunity available to it under Section 79(1) of the IT Act, 2000. “We have already made it clear that if Twitter wants to function in India, they know what to do,” the court said.
Meanwhie, the Centre has filed a plea before the Supreme Court seeking transfer of all petitions challenging the constitutionality of the IT Act from various high courts to the apex court.