Meta, WhatsApp seek nodal contact, chief compliance, grievance officers in India

Meta (formerly Facebook) and WhatsApp are scouting for candidates for the roles of nodal contact and grievance officer as well as chief compliance officer - positions that have been mandated under India's IT rules for large social media companies. These positions are being advertised on LinkedIn, and have been posted over the course of the past few days.

The new IT rules, which came into effect in May this year, mandate that significant social media intermediaries (those with other 50 lakh users) appoint a grievance officer, nodal officer and a chief compliance officer. These personnel are required to be resident in India.

At that time, WhatsApp had named Paresh B Lal as its grievance officer for India on its website, while Facebook had named Spoorthi Priya as its grievance officer for India on its website. While Facebook's page names Priya as the grievance officer, WhatsApp's website shows Varun Lamba as the grievance officer.


When contacted, Meta and WhatsApp in an e-mailed statement said: "We have appointed officers as per the requirements of the Intermediary Guideline Rules. We are actively engaged in a continued dialogue with the government on the new IT rules and we remain committed to keeping our users safe on our platform."

They further said: "We reserve the right to seek new candidates as needed because the officers are critical roles and include the recruitment of uniquely qualified personnel to lead these responsibilities".

Meta counts India among its biggest markets for its family of apps. According to data cited by the Indian government earlier this year, there are 53 crore WhatsApp users, 41 crore Facebook subscribers and 21 crore Instagram account holders in the country. As per Meta's post on LinkedIn, it is "looking for a highly motivated professional for the role of nodal contact person and grievance officer for Facebook in India".