Indian government concluded that Twitter is no longer an ‘intermediary’ and hence cannot be provided legal protection which is accorded to Internet intermediaries under the Section 79 of the Information Technology Act.
After consulting with legal experts and other department of the concerned government over several days, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has reached this perspective. It is likely to present it to the courts or law enforcement agencies as and when needed as stated by the officials.
“It is up to the courts to decide finally whether Twitter will still enjoy safe harbour status or not. As far as we (the IT Ministry) are concerned, our view is now decided. They (Twitter) have till date not complied with multiple norms ,” said a senior Ministry official.
The social media intermediaries were given until May 26 to make the appointments in regard to the Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code which has been rolled out in February. The ‘significant’ social media intermediaries – those with more than 50 lakh users in India – were required to appoint a resident grievance officer, a nodal contact person, and a chief compliance officer based in the country.
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and Telegram announced and displayed the names of the resident grievance officer and sending the names of the nodal contact person and the chief compliance officer to the Ministry the following week on their websites.
The Ministry was assured as Twitter announced the appointment of Dharmendra Chatur as interim resident grievance officer in a letter on June 6 while it was working to make permanent appointments to these posts. The details given concerning the advanced stage of finalising the appointment of the chief compliance officer would be given the next week.
However, as of Monday, Ministry officials stated that Twitter had not shared any details. Meanwhile, Twitter announced on its website that San Francisco-based Jeremy Kessel, the company’s senior director of global legal policy, has taken over the responsibilities of Chatur, the interim resident grievance officer, since the latter resigned from Twitter on Sunday.
Ministry officials however argue that since Kessel is not a resident of India, his appointment goes against the IT Rules. An official said: “The Rules are truly clear that the person should be resident in India and be on the company’s payroll. We are not concerned with whether they are an employee of the Indian arm or of the company’s headquarters.”
Twitter advertised on its website on Monday evening, vacancies for a resident grievance officer, a nodal officer and a chief compliance officer for India with all three positions based in Mumbai or New Delhi.
