Twitter appointed a chief compliance officer and a resident grievance officer as a contingent arrangement, but has not designated a nodal contact person, Parliament was informed on Thursday. On May 26, 2021 (the day when new rules for social media were enforced), Twitter was non-compliant as it failed to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person and a resident grievance officer as mandated in the norms, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
"Subsequently, they appointed a chief compliance officer and a resident grievance officer as a contingent arrangement. Twitter has also not designated a nodal contact person and the matter is sub-judice," he added. Social media platforms like Twitter are intermediaries as defined in the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000.
Meanwhile, Twitter on Friday, August 6 informed the Delhi High Court that it has appointed a Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) and Nodal Contact Person on permanent basis in compliance with the new Information Technology (IT) Rules.
The court, however, said the affidavit filed by the microblogging platform in this regard is not on record and asked Twitter to ensure that it is brought on record. Justice Rekha Palli noted that the copies of the affidavit have been served to other parties, including the Union government’s counsel who shall come back with instructions on August 10.
Senior advocate Sajan Poovayya, representing Twitter, said the company has appointed permanent officials for the posts of CCO, RGO and Nodal Contact Person on August 4 in compliance with the new IT Rules and has also filed an affidavit in compliance with the court's earlier order.
The high court had earlier expressed displeasure over Twitter Inc for appointing a contingent worker as CCO and had said the microblogging platform was non-compliant with the new IT Rules.
It had noted that while the rules mandated appointment of a key managerial person or a senior employee as CCO. Twitter had disclosed in its affidavit that it had appointed a contingent worker through a third party contractor.
It had directed Twitter to not only disclose all the details pertaining to the appointment of the CCO as well as the Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) but also clarify as to why a Nodal Contact Person had not been appointed yet and by when the position will be filled.
The court had earlier granted time to Twitter to file an affidavit to show compliance with the IT Rules. The government had said in its affidavit that Twitter failed to comply with India's new IT Rules, which could lead to its losing immunity conferred under the IT Act.
In order to ensure accountability of social media platforms to users and enhanced user safety, the government has notified the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which came into effect from May 26, 2021, MoS Rajeev Chandrasekhar said. He added that in case of non-compliance, the intermediaries are liable to lose their exemption under Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000.
Chandrasekhar said 'Police' and 'Public Order' are state subjects, and complaints reported against Twitter are dealt by the respective law enforcement authorities of states/ Union territories. "MeitY is not involved in filing of any FIR against Twitter," he added.
Responding to a question on phishing attacks, Chandrasekhar said activities of fraudulent e-mails, SMSs, phishing websites and campaigns through WhatsApp pretending to be from legitimate services lure users to divulge credentials to conduct financial frauds.
"As per the information reported to and tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total of 454, 472, 280 and 138 phishing incidents were observed during the year 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 (up to June) respectively," he added.