Twitter names resident grievance officer amidst trouble with centre

NEW DELHI: Twitter has named Vinay Prakash as its resident grievance officer (RGO) for India, according to the company’s website.

The US-based company has been in the eye of a storm over its alleged failure to comply with the new IT rules in India, which mandates, among other requirements, the appointment of three key personnel-- chief compliance officer, nodal officer and grievance officer by social media platforms with over 50 lakh users. All three personnel have to be residents in India.

As per the information updated on Twitter’s website, Vinay Prakash is the RGO. Users can contact him using an email ID listed on the page.

“Twitter can be contacted in India at the following address: 4th Floor, The Estate, 121 Dickenson Road, Bangalore 560 042,” the page further said.

Prakash’s name appears along with Jeremy Kessel, who is the Global Legal Policy Director, based in the US.

The company has also published its compliance report for the period of May 26 to June 25. This was another key requirement under the IT rules that came into effect on May 26.

Twitter had previously appointed Dharmendra Chatur as its interim RGO for India as required by the IT rules. However, Chatur stepped down last month.

Twitter has been at loggerheads with the Indian government over the new social media rules. The government has confronted Twitter over deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the rules, despite repeated reminders.

Twitter, which has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, lost its legal shield as an intermediary in India, becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

On July 8, Twitter had informed the Delhi High Court that it has appointed an interim chief compliance officer, who is a resident of India, and that it will make an endeavour to fill the regular position within eight weeks as per the new rules.

It had also said it was in the process of appointing an Indian resident as its interim RGO and it expected to do so on or before July 11 and details would be updated on its ‘Help Page’.