Twitter India interim grievance officer quits amid tussle with Centre

The big social media companies are mandated to appoint a chief compliance officer

Amid the tussle between the Centre and Twitter on the new IT rules, the microblogging platform's interim resident grievance officer for India has stepped down.

The social media company's website no longer displays Dharmendra Chatur, who was recently appointed as interim resident grievance officer for India by Twitter.

Twitter now displays the company's name in the place of a grievance officer for India with a US address and an email ID.

Sources said that Chatur quit the post. However, Twitter refused to comment on the issue.

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As per Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, social media firms should appoint a grievance officer to address complaints from Indian subscribers, according to a source.

Earlier the government had slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with new IT rules. The new rules which came into effect on May 25 dictate that all significant social media companies, with a user base of over 50 lakh should appoint a grievance officer to deal with such complaints and share the name and contact details of such officers on their official websites.

Large social media companies also have to appoint a chief compliance officer and a Nodal Contact Person All of them should be resident in India.

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In the meantime, the microblogging platform had appointed Chatur as interim resident grievance officer for India.

The US-based firm said it intends to comply with the new IT rules and will share details of the chief compliance officer.

Twitter in response to the final notice issued by the government on June 5 had said that it intends to comply with the new IT rules and will share details of the chief compliance officer.

According to a government official, the company has lost legal protection as an intermediary and will be legally held responsible for all content posted by its users on the platform.

(With inputs from PTI)