Petition against Twitter for not complying with IT rules

A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court against Twitter Communication India Pvt Ltd and Twitter Inc, for failing to comply with India’s new IT rules that came into effect from Wednesday.

The petitioner, Amit Acharya, said the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 came into force from May 25 and Twitter had been given three months to comply with the rules but it had failed to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer to redress user complaints regarding violation of the provisions of the rules.

The petitioner said he wanted to “register his complaint against some defamatory and untrue tweets but could not find the redressal mechanism on its site.”

The company “...not only failed to appoint Resident Grievance Officer but has also not appointed Nodal officer and Chief Compliance Officer mentioned under Rule 4 of the IT Rules, 2021.”

The petition comes a day after Twitter and the government had a public faceoff over compliance with the IT rules.

The government has directed Twitter to comply, while the microblogging platform has sought three months to do so.

Also Read: Govt-Twitter faceoff escalates over India IT rules