Twitter has to comply with new IT rules for digital media, says Delhi High Court

Twitter has to comply with the new Information Technology Rules for digital media in the event that they haven’t been stayed, the Delhi High Court mentioned on Monday.

Justice Rekha Palli issued discover to the Centre and social media platform Twitter searching for their stand on a plea by a lawyer, Amit Acharya, claiming non-compliance of the Rules by it.

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While Twitter claimed earlier than the court docket that it has complied with the rules and appointed a resident grievance officer, the Central authorities disputed the declare.

“They have to follow it [rules], if it has not been stayed,” the court docket mentioned.

In his plea, filed by way of advocate Akash Vajpai and Manish Kumar, Mr. Acharya mentioned that he got here to know in regards to the alleged non-compliance when he tried to lodge a grievance towards a few tweets.

During the listening to, Central authorities standing counsel Ripudaman Singh Bhardwaj informed the court docket that Twitter has not complied with the rules.

Mr. Acharya, in his plea, mentioned that the new IT Rules took impact from February 25 and the Centre had given three months to each social media middleman, together with Twitter, to comply with them.

He contended that the three-month interval received over on May 25, however no resident grievance officer was appointed by Twitter to deal with complaints concerning tweets on its platform.

The petition has sought a path to Twitter to appoint a resident grievance officer with out additional delay. It has additionally sought a path to the Centre to be certain that the IT rules are complied with.

Twitter had not too long ago mentioned it was dedicated to India as a significant market, however criticised the new IT rules and laws, saying they “inhibit free, open public conversation”.

Responding to Twitter’s feedback, the Centre had mentioned the social media platform was levelling baseless and false allegations to defame India and dictating phrases to the world’s largest democracy.

The Centre alleged that Twitter refused to comply with new digital rules requiring identification of the originator of a flagged message and appointing grievance redressal officers and the purported dedication of the U.S.-based agency to India not solely sounds hole however utterly self-serving.

Under the new digital rules, social media corporations equivalent to Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter have been requested to establish inside 36 hours the originator of a flagged message in addition to conduct extra due diligence, together with the appointment of a chief compliance officer, nodal contact particular person and resident grievance officer.